Memorial service planned May 18 for Los Alamos Medal winner Conrad Longmire

Former Lab physicist and 2004 recipient of LANL's highest award to be remembered

May 4, 2010—A memorial service for longtime Laboratory scientist and 2004 Los Alamos Medal recipient Conrad Longmire is May 18 at Fuller Lodge in Los Alamos. Longmire died March 22 in Santa Barbara, Calif. at age 88. The service begins at 4 p.m.

The Los Alamos Medal is the highest honor the Laboratory can bestow upon an individual or small group. Nominees for the medal are judged on strict selection criteria that include making a contribution that changed the course of science, facilitating a major enhancement of the Laboratory’s ability to accomplish its mission, having a significant impact on Lab sustainability and establishing a major direction for Los Alamos and/or the nation.

Longmire joined the Laboratory in 1949, after graduating with a degree in engineering physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana in 1942, working at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, and earning his doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Rochester in 1948. 

A weapons designer, Longmire worked in the Theoretical Division from 1949 to 1969 — he took a one-year sabbatical in 1951 to teach physics at Cornell University. He also was a Lab associate for a number of years and played a key role in developing an understanding of some of the fundamental processes in weapons performance. His work included the original detailed theoretical analysis of boosting and ignition of the first thermonuclear device.

Longmire participated in the development of the theory supporting research into controlled fusion while working on Project Sherwood, and he wrote Elementary Plasma Physics (one of the early textbooks on this topic). He also became the first person to work out a detailed theory of the generation and propagation of the electromagnetic pulse from nuclear weapons. Additionally, he was a recipient of the esteemed E.O. Lawrence Award in 1961.

His son Patrick Longmire of Earth System Observations (EES-14) described his father as a "brilliant mathematician and physicist who made very significant contributions to plasma physics and electromagnetic pulse phenoma. My father was one of the few scientists who changed the world for the better in terms of national security during the 1950s through the 1980s.

"He continues to inspire his children, grandchildren, friends and colleagues in many ways." On a personal note Longmire added, "My father also enjoyed classical and bluegrass music and was particularly fond of Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt, and Earl Scruggs."

Longmire is survived by his wife Theresa of Santa Barbara, Calif.; daughters Jennifer Moss of Los Alamos and Judy March of Longmont, Colo.; sons Henry of Newburyport, Mass., Matthew of Santa Barbara, Calif., Jonathan of Biosecurity and Public Health (B-7) and Patrick of EES-14; 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; brothers Calvin, Jim, and Wayne; sister Jean Longmire Fouts; and many nieces and nephews.