LLNL celebrates 70 years of innovative science

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) held an Employee Engagement Day to celebrate the institution’s 70th anniversary on October 11, 2022. For the event, the Physical and Life Sciences (PLS) directorate hosted a variety of tours and activities, providing a behind-the-scenes look into our multidisciplinary research efforts.

The Biosciences and Biotechnology Division (BBTD) held three tours focused on bioscience solutions to emerging health, energy, and environmental challenges; building effective countermeasures to combat human health challenges with biotechnology; and detecting, employing, and combatting microbes to solve complex challenges.

PLS’s Nuclear and Chemical Sciences (NACS) division hosted tours of the Nuclear Counting Facility (NCF) and Accelerator Facility. NCF, located one and a half floors below ground, was originally built to support the Nuclear Test Program but is now used to provide high-sensitivity radiation measurements, supporting research in nuclear forensics, stockpile stewardship, nonproliferation, and counterterrorism. NACS division leader Dawn Shaughnessy said, “Being able to tour this facility allows people to look at a piece of Lab history that is still in use today.”

The Accelerator Facility, located in underground caves, houses some of the most sophisticated tools ever built to accelerate charged particles to incredibly high speeds, allowing scientists to detect isotopes, create fast neutrons, peer inside heavily shielded objects, and characterize unknown material.

The Materials Science Division (MSD) held tours of the Materials Sciences laboratories. These facilities house many unique capabilities, including those for producing laser targets, additive manufacturing and associated feedstock development, capabilities for producing transparent ceramics, and battery and specialty alloy development. MSD’s Deputy Division Leader for Science & Technology Vince Lordi said, “Several tour participants made comments about having walked past the building many times before, but they never knew the cool stuff we were doing inside!”

One of PLS’s user facilities, the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (CAMS), also hosted a tour. CAMS supports the Laboratory’s research efforts in areas such as carbon cycle research, environmental radiochemistry, and forensic science. Event volunteer and postdoctoral researcher John Wilkinson said, “The CAMS tour showcased the unique resources of our accelerator laboratory—from ion beam generation to detection and interpretation of the data we generate. We had engaging interactions with visitors and were excited to share the motivations, methods, and results of the work we perform here.” Wilkinson further explained how the tour made it even more apparent just how diverse LLNL’s square mile of science really is.