Community recognition ceremonies planned as celebration of Los Alamos National Laboratory's 60th anniversary continues

Contact: Jim Danneskiold, jdanneskiold@lanl.gov, (505) 667-1640 (03-050)

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 17, 2003 -- Los Alamos National Laboratory has invited leaders from neighboring communities, New Mexico's congressional delegation and governor, officials from the University of California, and leaders of the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration to events marking the Laboratory's 60th Anniversary on Tuesday, April 22.

Media representatives are welcome to join invited guests at the day's ceremonies. Security and space limitations preclude general public invitations to Tuesday's events. The media also is welcome at major talks and events scheduled for Monday, April 21, and Wednesday, April 23.

Invitees to Tuesday's events include U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-NM, Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, Rep. Tom Udall, D-NM, Gov. Bill Richardson, Ambassador Linton Brooks, administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, University of California President Richard Atkinson, John Moores, chairman of the UC Board of Regents and Bruce Darling, UC senior vice-president for University Affairs. Also invited are state legislators, distinguished scientists and engineers, officials from the Department of Defense and other federal and state agencies, and Pueblo, city and county government leaders.

Major events on Tuesday include anniversary recognition ceremonies, dedication of the new Nonproliferation and International Security Center and the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test facility, and awards for the state's top students in the Laboratory's 13th annual New Mexico High School Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge.

Interim Director Pete Nanos said the day's events will give the Laboratory an opportunity to honor community and government leaders whose support has been crucial to Los Alamos' 60 years of achievements in science, technology and national security. He expressed hope that the six months of anniversary events, which began April 7, will mark where the Laboratory is today, and where it is headed.

MONDAY, APRIL 21
At 1:30 p.m. on Monday, April 21, in the Laboratory's Administration Building auditorium, Frank Harlow, a theoretical physicist in Laboratory's Theoretical Division for the past 50 years, will reflect on his "Lifetime of Turbulence" and receive recognition for his distinguished research career. Harlow has worked on problems of turbulence and the hydrodynamic properties of materials and has developed computer problem-solving techniques used for a multitude of applications worldwide. He has served as a mentor for more than 150 students and has advised 16 doctoral candidates. Harlow is also an accomplished painter, and his work is displayed in private collections throughout the world.

TUESDAY, APRIL 22
Tuesday's full day of ceremonies will begin with an Anniversary Recognition Event at which many of the invited guests will speak. The event will begin at 9 a.m. in the Administration Building Auditorium.

From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Physics Building Auditorium, students from throughout the state will be honored for their yearlong computing projects at ceremonies for the Laboratory's 13th annual New Mexico High School Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge and Awards Expo. Sen. Domenici is scheduled to present the top supercomputing awards beginning at about 10:30 a.m.

Laboratory and NNSA officials will dedicate the new Nonproliferation and International Security Center in ceremonies scheduled to begin at 11:15 a.m. Government and key NNSA officials will speak, and representatives from the Laboratory's Threat Reduction Directorate and Nonproliferation and International Security Division will be available to discuss their work.

The new, 164,000-square-foot Center provides modern laboratory and office space for more than 400 NIS Division employees, who previously were scattered across several Laboratory technical areas. The building was completed on time and nearly 15 percent under its original $63.5 million budget. Prime contractor for the Center was Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Greeley, Colo.

Lunch will follow at the Nicholas C. Metropolis Center for Modeling and Simulation.

A major announcement about one of the Laboratory's key programs is scheduled for a 12:15 p.m. media availability at the Metropolis Center. Sen. Domenici, Amb. Brooks, Atkinson and Nanos will make the announcement. A separate announcement about a major new academic partnership between the Laboratory and the University of California is scheduled to follow the programmatic announcement.

Tuesday's final event will be an informational presentation on the DARHT facility at the Metropolis Center Auditorium, scheduled to begin at 1:45 p.m. Formal dedication of DARHT will follow outside the DARHT building at Technical Area 15.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23
New Mexico's thirst for water and a broad discussion of how science can help in setting water management policy will be the topic of a public meeting in Santa Fe that will include Laboratory researchers, state officials and others from the scientific, environmental and water policy communities on Wednesday morning, April 23.

"Water, Drought and New Mexico" will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Hilton Hotel. After presentations by climate researchers and a representative from the State Engineer's Office, a panel discussion will begin at 10:40 a.m. The public and the media are welcome to take part in the panel discussion.

Also on Wednesday, a "Science Day" for Laboratory employees and the media is scheduled at the Laboratory's J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., featuring talks on science-based prediction, astrophysics, genetics, explosives and actinide chemistry.

An Anniversary Lecture on the Human Genome Project is set for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the University of New Mexico's Los Alamos campus auditorium. The talk, by Norman Doggett of the Laboratory's Bioscience Division, is entitled "Completion of Human Genome and Impact on Humanity," and will be followed by a public discussion about the implications of the project. Doggett led the Los Alamos team responsible for sequencing the human chromosome 16.

Experts on nuclear energy will gather at the Laboratory's Physics Auditorium on Wednesday, April 30, for a public forum on "Nuclear Power in the 21st Century." Panelists include Per Peterson, chairman of the Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of California, Berkeley, Vic Reis, former head of DOE Defense Programs and now a consultant for Science Applications International Corp., James Duderstadt, president emeritus of the University of Michigan and Richard Stratford, director of the Office of Nuclear Energy of the U.S. Department of State.

Another public event is an evening lecture on black holes and the Milky Way galaxy scheduled for Los Alamos (April 29), Santa Fe (April 30), Albuquerque (May 7) and Taos (May 8).

Other events will follow throughout the next six months, focusing on the Laboratory's contributions to national security and its future missions and directions in science and technology. The Laboratory's anniversary slogan is "Ideas that change the world."

Activities marking the 60th anniversary will continue through the summer and wind up in September with the publication of a special issue of Los Alamos Science magazine.

Schedules and general information about 60th Anniversary activities are available at http://sixty.lanl.gov online. New events will be added to the event schedule frequently.

Major April Events (subject to change)

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission.

Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and national security concerns.

NOTE: Media representatives are invited to the ceremonies, but must contact Jim Danneskiold by 4 p.m. Friday, April 18, to attend any event not listed as "PUBLIC" on the schedule below.

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