Charlie Nakhleh selected as deputy Laboratory director for Weapons

Charles W. "Charlie" Nakhleh has been appointed the new deputy Laboratory director for Weapons (DDW) at Los Alamos National Laboratory, effective April 1. He succeeds Robert Webster, who is retiring March 31 after more than 40 years of service to the nuclear security enterprise.

As DDW, Nakhleh will take over leadership of all line organizations and programmatic scope associated with National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Weapons Programs, including four Lab directorates: Weapons Physics, Weapons Engineering, Weapons Production and Plutonium Infrastructure, totaling approximately $6 billion and 6,000 employees. In his new role, he will guide the strategic alignment of these programs to meet national objectives, ensuring rigorous design, simulation, manufacturing and certification processes that sustain the nation’s strategic deterrent. 

Since joining the Lab in 1996, Nakhleh has served in several leadership roles, most recently as the associate Laboratory director for Weapons Physics (ALDX), where he has overseen the Lab's weapons physics and design portfolio, dynamic experimentations and multiphysics computational simulations. Prior to leading ALDX, Nakhleh was the division leader for the X Theoretical Design division (XTD) and executive officer for Weapons Programs. He spent six years at Sandia National Laboratories from 2007 to 2013, where he led target design and analysis efforts for inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density physics experiments on the Z pulsed-power facility. Before joining Sandia, he was a member of the Applied Physics Division (X) at Los Alamos, where he made significant contributions to a wide variety of weapons physics and design issues; worked extensively on uncertainty quantification; was a weapon system point-of-contact; and served as the X-2 deputy group leader and group leader (acting).

Nakhleh has served on a wide variety of advisory panels, including as a founding member of the NNSA's Predictive Science Panel, a consultant to JASON, an adviser to the under secretary of energy for science on the National Ignition Campaign (NIC), and as an adviser to the NNSA on a variety of weapons physics issues. He is a graduate of the Theoretical Institute of Thermonuclear and Nuclear Studies (TITANS) program at Los Alamos. In addition to his leadership and management responsibilities, his research interests span a wide range of nuclear weapons design and physics issues, ICF, high-energy-density physics and applications of Bayesian inference techniques. Nakhleh received his Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University.

"Throughout his career, Charlie has exemplified the integrity, rigor and sense of purpose that define Los Alamos, and the Lab's leadership team and I firmly believe he is the right person for the job," Lab Director Thom Mason said. "As we look to the next chapter in Weapons, we are deeply grateful for Bob's years of leadership. His lasting contributions to our national security mission will continue to guide and inspire us for years to come."

LA-UR-26-22182