Thursday, Feb. 11, 1999
Director John Browne will discuss the "State of the Laboratory" at a town-hall meeting at 8:10 a.m. Wednesday in the Administration Building Auditorium. The meeting is open to all Laboratory badgholders and will be broadcast live on LABNET Channel 9. The town-hall meeting also will be rebroadcast at noon on LABNET Channel 10. |
Deputy director shares long-range vision with Lab managers
Laboratory managers should be thinking about new missions for the
Lab 10, 20 and even 40 years from today, according to Bill Press.
Press, the Lab's deputy director for science, technology and programs, said Lab managers should spend at least 10 minutes a week, if not more, thinking about where the Lab should be beyond its principal mission of stockpile stewardship.
Press shared his long-range vision of the Lab at Monday's all-manager's meeting in the Administration Building Auditorium. While he acknowledged that many managers' plates already are full, thinking long-range will help ensure that the Lab retains its world-class standing well into the next century.
"We expect to be here as the strongest national laboratory, 20 years, 50 years from now," said Press. He noted that the Lab's two main missions today are nuclear technologies and computers/computer simulation -- a confessed fast food addict, he called them the Laboratory "golden arches." While large and important enough to sustain the Lab's viability for the next few years, managers, he said, should be thinking about how the Lab can use its expertise "to move into future missions as they occur."
A third golden arch, Press said, could be biosciences to address national needs, or expertise in environmental issues.
Press used the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) at Technical Area 53 as an example. While LANSCE has been able to attract scientists worldwide as a sort of magnet user facility, that alone probably isn't enough to sustain LANSCE long range.
But with new technologies like proton radiography or other accelerator-based technologies, TA-53 can continue to address mission-related issues while also allowing scientists to conduct basic scientific research and continue as a user facility.
Press said Lab managers also should be looking within their own organizations for people who could be the Lab's future scientific leaders. They could be someone who isn't necessarily a brilliant post-doctoral employee, but rather, he said, a person who recognizes an idea and understands potential opportunities for collaboration across the Lab and with organizations outside the Laboratory.
Press suggested that group leaders form "science councils" to cultivate new ideas and new leaders. Group leaders should ask "who is the scientific-leadership in my group and how do I ensure there is a scientific leadership chain that goes all the way up through the Lab?"
Press warned that without this scientific leadership chain, the Lab will falter in the long run.
Press also urged Lab managers to consider all their hiring decisions as "strategic hires." Rather than hiring a person to fulfill a specific function, people should be hired who can contribute to the Laboratory, 10, 20, 40 years down the road. "When you hire someone at the Lab, you're hiring them for a lifetime career at the Lab," said Press.
Press also noted that the Lab should seek scientific and technical collaborations with agencies and organizations outside the Lab so that the Lab is working with rather than competing against them. The Lab can do this, he said, by using its breadth of expertise outside of its present core mission. "If we're going to extend our mission out we have to have something to put on the table," he said.
--Steve Sandoval
Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation grant-writing workshop
The nonprofit Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation is sponsoring a free grant-writing workshop Feb. 18 in Española.
The workshop is from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the main conference room of the Joseph Montoya Administration Building at Northern New Mexico Community College, said Nicolla Covey of the foundation. Seating is limited to the first 60 individuals who sign up, she said.
Participants will discuss sponsor identification, the grant-writing process and tips for improving proposals for submission to the foundation, said Covey, adding that the workshop is designed for area volunteers and nonprofit organizations.
The Laboratory Foundation was created in 1997 to award philanthropic grants primarily in Northern New Mexico communities. Since the foundation began awarding educational outreach, community outreach and educational enrichment grants last year, about $2 million has been awarded to public service agencies, school districts and charitable organizations in Northern New Mexico.
The foundation offices are located at1640 Old Pecos Trail, Suite C, in Santa Fe.
For more information, call Covey at 992-0685.
--Steve Sandoval
Pluto in our solar system
 |
Pluto today has once again become the Solar System's most distant planet, moving farther away from the sun than Neptune. Pluto's 249-year orbit about the sun is so eccentric that part of its orbit lies inside Neptune's orbit. |
Legislators recognized at Hispanic Round Table dinner
State Sen. Manny Aragon, D-Bernalillo, Valencia, center, shares a laugh with Rick Malaspina, far left, of the University of California Office of the President; M.J. Byrne, left, and David Gurule, right, of the Department of Energy's Los Alamos Area Office; and Warren F. "Pete" Miller, far right, acting deputy director for business, administration and outreach, at Tuesday's Hispanic Round Table of New Mexico dinner in Sweeney Convention Center in Santa Fe. The round table and El Centro de la Raza hosted its seventh annual tribute to Hispanic legislators at a dinner to recognize Hispanic legislators and elected officials. Photo by LeRoy N. Sanchez
EM deputy program director dies
Berger had a long history of dedicated service to his profession and the Laboratory. During his tenure with the Lab, he served as a Team Leader of the Environmental Management Science Program's Extraction and Separation of Radioactive and Hazardous Chemicals Team and was on the Make or Buy Team of the Laboratory Leadership Council's Resource Working Group. Most recently, he had been appointed to the Governor's Blue Ribbon Task Force for Water. Friends, colleagues and co-workers remember him as a kind and gentle man. He is survived by his wife, Charryl, and a son. Information about funeral services for Berger will follow. |
| On today's bulletin board | |
|---|---|
|
|
Past Daily Newsbulletins | Last week's headlines
Other news sources
Reflections
| News Releases
| Dateline: Los Alamos
| DOE Pulse
LANL | Phone Book | Search | Help
L O S A L A M O S
N A T I O N A L L A B O R A T O R Y
Operated by the University of California
for the US Department of Energy
Director to discuss 'State of the Laboratory'
Wednesday
Michael Berger, deputy program director of the Lab's environmental
management division passed away unexpectedly late Tuesday afternoon. Berger
had been with Lab for 24 years in various scientific and administrative
capacities.
Lab golf league (a Laboratory sanctioned organization)
annual meeting March 2