Budgets, AI, cows and space among topics covered in Los Alamos Lab Director’s Jan. 21 Town Hall
About 300 people attended the virtual presentation and Q&A session
February 4, 2025

During his first virtual public Town Hall of the year, Los Alamos National Laboratory Director Thom Mason told about 300 online viewers tuning in from across the region that the Laboratory is charging ahead with its mission in FY25, with projected budgets looking stable, hiring at normal levels and bipartisan support looking solid through the early stages of the post-election administration change.
"We obviously are in the middle of a continuing resolution now, so we don't have the final budget numbers for 2025," Mason said. "But, so far, the work that Congress has done sort of suggests that we'll kind of continue on a steady track out of last year."
Broadcasting live from the Pacheco complex in Santa Fe, Mason was joined by special guest Angela Mielke, executive officer of the Deputy Director’s Office for Science Technology and Engineering, for the hourlong discussion, which covered several of the Laboratory's most critical areas of focus for the new year.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence has been at the center of discussions on the future of national security science, and the Laboratory is continuing to build its reputation as a leader in AI research in America through work supporting a wide range of both weapons and non-weapons programs.
"We've actually brought online two supercomputers — Venado and Crossroads — which are helping us continue the important work we're doing in modeling and simulation so that we can certify our deterrent without testing," Mason said. "But also, with Venado in particular, we can explore the tremendous opportunities of artificial intelligence."
Recently, the Laboratory joined the New Mexico AI consortium — a joint venture with Sandia National Laboratories and several state universities and colleges to advance the development and understanding of AI and machine learning — and entered into an agreement with the University of Michigan to build a new AI research center.
"These collaborations are being done with the goal of really leveraging the high-performance computing capabilities along with our AI background and computational science background to help universities and other laboratories build strong proposals that are much larger than those they've been able to build in the past," Mielke said.
Such collaborations also serve to strengthen the Laboratory's network of pipelines and partnerships and support a strong open science base, which keeps workforce talent flowing to the Lab from around the country.
"That span and breadth is really important — it's what the national labs bring to (the country's) research system," Mielke said. "Discovery and open science provide ways to bring our pipelines in, and then we're able to leverage them."
In addition to AI, the Laboratory will continue to focus on other world-leading science that underpins its missions in areas such as pit production and global security. Mielke talked through other exciting developments in advanced manufacturing, modeling, space research and more.
"We have not been pulling away from the investments in science, technology and engineering," Mielke said. "Our non-weapon science funding has actually been growing, and all across our Science, Technology and Engineering organization, our program offices just crossed the billion-dollar mark last year with new funds."
Key projects
Several key areas of focus this year will include continued upgrades along the Pajarito Corridor in support of plutonium pit production goals, Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) modernization and efforts supporting the Electric Power Capacity Upgrade Project to deliver additional power needed to bolster high-performance computing and enable delivery of the Laboratory's next supercomputer.
"We have people trying to do cutting-edge scientific work and facilities that maybe were state of the art in 1955, but not so much now," Mason said. "So, although we've been fortunate to get a lot of infrastructure investments in some areas, there are other areas where we need to find a way to modernize. We're still working our way through, but if we're going to be a cutting-edge research institution in the 21st century, we need to have state-of-the-art, experimental spaces and just the right work environment where people can collaborate."
Community
On the community front, Mason provided updates on the Laboratory's efforts to be a force for good across Northern New Mexico.
Employees capped off FY24 by donating more than $2 million during the annual Holiday Giving Campaign and around 2,700 toys during the Holiday Toy Drive. Also noteworthy was the announcement late last year that the University of California-funded child care center in Los Alamos came into full operation.
Q&A
Mason and Mielke concluded the Town Hall with a lengthy Q&A session, taking both presubmitted and live questions from the audience. Topics included:
- Supercomputing (16:31)
- AI tools used in Laboratory operations (17:02)
- Other programs supporting, AI, cybersecurity, computing (19:47)
- AI and high-performance computing advances (20:42)
- Science budgets (23:52)
- Supply chain updates (24:31)
- Wildfire threats (25:41)
- Housing (28:46)
- Tech transfer (30:37)
- Stockpile modernization (31:53)
- Renewable energy on-site (34:58)
- Traffic safety (38:12)
- Space programs (40:17)
- Acid Canyon (41:35)
- Work locations (43:05)
- Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (43:49)
- Drones (44:57)
- Medical isotopes (46:14)
- Nuclear power (50:25)
- Satellite campus (52:10)
- Feral cows (54:41)
Watch the full video.
Contact
Public Affairs | media_relations@lanl.gov