Postdoctoral research programs fuel the research engine and recruit new talent

The core mission of the NNSA and its Laboratories is to enhance global security by ensuring confidence in the safety, reliability, and performance of U.S. nuclear weapons without testing; develop technical solutions to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction; and improve the environmental and nuclear materials legacy of the Cold War. However, no national security program can be better than the quality of the scientists and engineers doing the work and providing the necessary leadership. Of grave concern is that a large percentage of Los Alamos staff has recently retired, or will retire within the next year and the coming decade.

The Laboratory's postdoctoral fellows programs provide one key mechanism by which Los Alamos attracts the next generation of scientists and engineers. Recruiting statistics reveal that an impressive 55 percent of new Technical Staff Members hired in 2004 first joined the Laboratory as postdoctoral fellows. This striking statistic illustrates that postdoctoral fellows programs play a significant role in recruiting new talent to the Laboratory.

Postdocs generally don't come to the Laboratory to work for the Laboratory per se; instead they are attracted to the Laboratory by a cadre of prominent scientists and engineers who are actively publishing exciting new science in the world's most prestigious scientific journals. This is one reason why it is so important for the Laboratory to foster great science and to help our scientists and engineers sustain visible excellence in relevant scientific areas. This is particularly true in the area of actinide science, which is crucial to the core weapons, nonproliferation, and environmental missions of the Laboratory.

Actinides are the large group of elements ranging from thorium through lawrencium, and include the elements uranium and plutonium. Knowledge of actinide science continues to be essential to the United States and central to the mission of the NNSA, including national defense, homeland security, energy, environmental restoration, and radioactive waste management. With nuclear weapons technology continuing to play a key role in defense policy for the foreseeable future, and with emerging threats of radiological terrorism, knowledge and expertise in the production, processing, purification, characterization, analysis, detection, and disposal of actinide elements is essential to U.S. national security. We worry about retirements in this field, and we have the added reality that the academic component of this field is small and decreasing. As faculty in actinide science-related fields retire, they are often not replaced because of the high cost, negative public perception, and the general risk associated with handling and disposing of radioactive materials.

Because of concern that the field is becoming subcritical at a time when this core competence is crucial for U.S. national security, it is strategically important for the Laboratory to increase its investment in actinide science education. In response to this need, the Los Alamos branch of the Seaborg Institute has sponsored an actinide science summer school, with formal courses and hands-on laboratory experiences for students, and a Summer Lecture Series for all Laboratory personnel.

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