Alan C. Lowe obtained his B.A. (1986) and M.A. (1988) in history at the University of Kentucky. In 1989, he joined the staff of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Los Angeles and Simi Valley, California. In 1992, he moved to the Office of Presidential Libraries at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. During part of this time, he also served as interim Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York.
From 2003 to 2009, Lowe served as the founding Executive Director of the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee. During his service at the Baker Center, he was appointed to the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress by Senate Majority Leader William Frist. In 2009, Lowe was appointed as the founding Director of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, in Dallas, Texas. In July 2016, he was chosen to be Executive Director of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
Lowe began service in November 2019 as Executive Director of the American Museum of Science and Energy (AMSE) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In that role with the AMSE Foundation, he oversees an institution devoted to telling both the stories of the Manhattan Project and of the continuing work going on in Oak Ridge today, and then using those lessons to advance a broader knowledge of science, engineering, and science history. When it opened in 2020, Lowe also became Executive Director of the K-25 History Center which was created to preserve the legacy of the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant, and to tell the broader story of the Manhattan Project and the creation of Oak Ridge. Among many other initiatives, as part of his role at the AMSE Foundation, Lowe hosts AMSEcast, the Foundation’s podcast, and The AMSE Science Report on WUOT, 91.9 FM.
Working with co-host and producer Scott Brun, Lowe is the co-host and historian of the popular podcast, American POTUS, all about the American presidency. In addition, he serves on the Advisory Board of Childhelp Tennessee; the Leadership Oak Ridge Advisory Committee; the Nonprofit Council of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce; and the Advisory Committees of both the Department of History and the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. In 2022, Lowe was inducted into the University of Kentucky Alumni Hall of Fame. He is a member of the Oak Ridge Rotary and a graduate of Leadership Knoxville, Leadership Oak Ridge, and the East Tennessee Regional Leadership Association.
Lowe is a native of Bourbon County, Kentucky. He and his wife Lianne live in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. His daughter, Carolyn, attends Belmont University, his stepdaughter Annie works for Bush Brothers and Company in Knoxville, and his stepson Aaron works for the State of Illinois
