National labs are a tiny (and highly sought after) sliver. In my experience of rummaging through public wage records, I have never seen a staff scientist at state run university outside of the $60k-$80k range.
High probability this clown was compensated in a pay band[1] that spans the equivalent of GS-12/13 for the locality[2].
[1] https://www.federalregister.gov/d/2010-22172/p-169
[2] https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries...
This, plus your internal grant money not only covers your salary but overhead, means a 140k person costs 300k or more.
Federal scientists are typically paid through a few projects that total to 100%, so I doubt all of the 462k from the article went to paying him, but probably a large chunk of that did.
[0] PhD in 1999?