A monthly recap of the milestones of 2000

Editor’s note: Throughout the year, the Lab lived up to its motto of science in the national interest, as this month-by-month recap of 2000 will attest.

Science and technology
A task force appointed by the secretary of Energy to study issues surrounding the National Ignition Facility finds no technical or managerial obstacles that would prevent the completion of the full 192-beam laser project. The Secretary of Energy Advisory Board accepts the task force’s findings.

A team of researchers led by physicist Claire Max unveils the best Earth-based images ever taken of Neptune and Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. The images are revealed at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta.

People
The Lab Women’s Association awards $6,000 in scholarships to 17 employees.
The former Lab directors offer their thoughts on where the Lab is headed as one millennium closes and another is about to begin.

Operations
The Department of Energy delivers an implementation plan for the National Nuclear Security Administration. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson also convenes a panel to search for an undersecretary of Nuclear Security.

Deputy Director Bob Kuckuck announces that DOE verification of the Lab’s Integrated Strategic Management is one of the Lab’s most important assignments for 2000.

Representatives from the Department of Defense’s Office of Defense Installations tour the Lab to learn more about facility management practices, which are cited as a model example according to a GAO audit.
Secretary Richardson outlines a number of actions to prevent racial profiling and discrimination. Among them is the appointment of DOE Ombuds Jeremy Wu, an agency-wide, daylong diversity stand-down, outreach to universities to address recruitment and retention issues, and changes in equal employment systems.

The Labs kicks off a fourth year of Science on Saturday, a weekly series for teens that highlights Laboratory technology and various facets of scientific research.

The City of Livermore buries a millennium time capsule. Included is a letter from Director Emeritus Edward Teller, microfilm of the Lab’s strategic plan and a newsletter on the Lab’s community environmental report.

Science and technology
Laboratory researchers unveil the world’s largest fastest-growing crystal, at 701 pounds, grown in 52 days. The KDP (or potassium dihydrogen phosphate) crystal will be sliced into plates for use in the National Ignition Facility.

Scientists receive the first images and spectra from one of the world’s most powerful X-ray telescopes, the X-ray Multi-Mirror Newton Observatory. The telescope was constructed with assistance by Lab researchers, who designed, prototyped and fabricated the reflective grating arrays. Project engineer Todd Decker leads the team.

The Stockpile Stewardship Program completes the first 3-D simulation of a nuclear weapon primary explosion using the IBM Blue Pacific supercomputer at the Lab. The supercomputer is part of the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative.

Lab researchers Ken Caldeira and Philip Duffy report in Science magazine that carbon dioxide from the atmosphere ends up deep in the subtropical ocean, and not in the cold southern ocean near Antarctica, as previously thought. Using their model, Caldeira and Duffy found that carbon dioxide absorbed by the southern ocean actually ends up in the subtropical latitudes as it slides along cold dense water layers before sinking into the deep subtropical ocean. Some scientists expect that global warming will make the southern ocean less able to take carbon dioxide out of the air.

Collaborators at LLNL, Lawrence Berkeley Lab and UC Davis use supercomputers to obtain a complete solution to the ionization of a hydrogen atom by collision with an electron. The complete solution to scattering in a quantum system of three charged particles, one of the most fundamental phenomena
in atomic physics, had eluded scientists for over 50 years.

Lab physicist Tom Rescigno was a principal author of the report that appeared in Science magazine.

People
Director Bruce Tarter and Deputy Director Jeff Wadsworth name the first Edward Teller fellows. The winners are Bill Nellis, Mordy Rosen, Christine Hartmann Siantar and Anne Happel. Nellis wins for his work in metallized hydrogen; Rosen is honored for his body of work in X-ray lasers; Happel is named for her study of environmental contaminants, particularly MTBE in groundwater; and Hartmann Siantar for her work on Peregrine, which will improve cancer treatment.

Staff members of the Technical Information Department take top honors from the Society of Technical Communicators. Science & Technology Review wins "Best of Show" and "Distinguished Technical Communication."

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology names Lab researcher Christine Smith one of the top "100 young innovators." Smith, who works in the Industrial Partnerships and Commercialization Office, was honored for efforts "that paved the way for productive research collaborations among thousands of people."

Members of the National Security Panel of the UC President’s Council come to Livermore for updates on stockpile stewardship and nonproliferation programs.

Operations
The Lab kicks off a new leadership lecture series to expand leadership and management development programs, Deputy Director Bob Kuckuck announces. The first lecture, by Jim Kouzes, is "Leadership Is Everyone’s Business."

The Lab announces a plan for trapping and testing rodents for the rare hantavirus, after a fatal case of the disease was confirmed in an employee who died in 1999. The disease is found in deer mice; on-site efforts to trap deer mice, known carriers of the virus, prove unsuccessful.

The Lab celebrates Black History Month, sponsored by the Association of Black Laboratory Employees. The event features a weekly menu of traditional food cooked up and served at the cafeteria by Lab employees.

The Department of Energy unveils its budget proposal for FY2001, seeking $18.9 billion. The budget would add increases to the Lab’s national security work in stockpile stewardship and proliferation prevention.

Livermore Police Chief Ron Scott says news stories that the Lab was interfering in the investigation into former employee Lee Hall’s murder are "inaccurate. The Livermore Police Department has a good relationship with the Laboratory, which allows us access at all levels."

"Technology Today," a weekly spotlight on LLNL and Sandia technology and hosted by the Lab and Sandia’s Public Affairs offices, makes its debut on Pleasanton and Livermore cable TV.

In a letter to all Laboratory employees, UC President Richard Atkinson says the University remains committed to the contract to manage Livermore, Los Alamos and Berkeley labs.Science and technology
Jim Bryan is named one of six "Heroes of Manufacturing" by Fortune magazine for his design of the telescoping ball bar, which measures machine tools for accuracy.

The ASCI Institute for Terascale Simulations kicks off a new lecture series to enrich the intellectual atmosphere of the Lab’s large simulation community throughout diverse areas of science, mathematics and computer science. Lecturers from the global computing community will come to the Lab to meet with leadership staff and technical experts in their area, tour Lab facilities and deliver a lecture.

The Laboratory signs two contracts in Moscow to assist Russian experts from the closed city of Snezhinsk to transition to civilian employment. The projects include developing oil production technology and improving Russia’s fiber optic cables for the commercial market. Days later the Lab signs a third contract with Russian nuclear weapons manufacturers at the Avanguard plant in the closed city of Sarov. Under the agreement, the plant will manufacture kidney dialysis equipment.

A major laser glass milestone is achieved for the National Ignition Facility, thanks to extensive research and development spearheaded by the Lab and its two glass vendors, Schott Glass Technologies and Hoya Corp. The technology is a process to ensure continuous production of economical, high-optical neodymium-doped phosphate laser glass, at a rate 20 times higher than current technology.

People
Lab scientists Dave Scott and Amy Waters create "Scientists of Tomorrow — Oakland Mentoring Projects" in an effort to reach out to Oakland students interested in science.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher officially releases a report on strategies for retaining more women in science, engineering and technology. The report, by 17 women from the Lab and Sandia, was written for the congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Technology.

Assemblywoman Lynne Leach speaks on women and politics during the Lab’s celebration of Women’s History Month.

DOE security czar Gen. Eugene Habiger tells the Lab he is pleased with the progress the national labs are making on security. Such improvements are helping the labs "regain the trust of the American people."
Deputy Director of Operations Bob Kuckuck testifies before the House Commerce Committee’s subcommittees on Energy and Power and Oversight and Investigations that the Lab is committed to providing every employee, and the neighboring community, with a safe, secure and healthy environment.

Deputy Director of Science and Technology Jeff Wadsworth and Executive Officer Ron Cochran host a visit of White House fellows at the Lab.

Director Bruce Tarter testifies before the House Committee on Armed Services’ Subcommittee on Military Procurement that stockpile stewardship is on the right path as it nears the fifth year of the program. "Much progress has been made, but much remains to be accomplished," Tarter testifies.

DOE Ombudsman Jeremy Wu visits the Lab to hear employee concerns regarding diversity and workforce issues. Wu promises to "restore employees’ faith" in DOE diversity efforts.

Stephen Payne and Mike Perry are elected fellows of the Optical Society of America.

Operations
The National Nuclear Security Administration formally begins operation. The national security functions and activities of the Department of Energy are transferred to NNSA. Gen. John Gordon is nominated as director.

The University of California expands the structure and membership of the UC President’s Council on the National Laboratories to bring additional expertise to areas of security and the management of major construction projects.

The Lab’s Science & Technology Office unveils STARS, the Web-based Science and Technology Awards and Recognition System. STARS tracks the various star performers at the Lab as well as their achievements.

DOE issues new guidelines for traveling to or the sponsoring of conferences, asking for new levels of approval.

Fourteen protesters are arrested for obstructing the West Gate entrance to the Lab.

The UC Presidents’ Council on the National Laboratories praises the Lab’s work in science and security, saying "there is much to be proud of."

The Lab’s administrative memos begin circulation via the Internet.

The Lab is once again the biggest Bay Area participant in the American Cancer’s Society’s annual "Daffodil Days." Proceeds from the sale of the flowers benefit cancer research. The Lab raises just under $25,000 from the one-day sale of flowers.

Results of a survey and six focus groups designed to help gauge the progress of the implementation of the Lab’s Integrated Safety Management show employees are generally knowledgeable about safety measures.

Science and technology
Secretary Richardson announces that researchers at the Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek have decoded in draft form the genetic information on human chromosomes 5, 16 and 19. The chromosomes contain an estimated 10,000-15,000 genes, including those whose defects may lead to genetically linked diseases such as certain forms of kidney disease, prostate and colon-rectal cancer, leukemia, hypertension, diabetes and atherosclerosis.

Director Bruce Tarter reports to the World Affairs Council in San Francisco that interactions between scientists at U.S. and Russian weapons laboratories have been the key to the success of efforts to reduce the global nuclear danger in the post-Cold War.

Secretary Richardson visits the Lab to dedicate a reserve for the endangered Amsinckia grandiflora, better known as the large-flowered fiddleneck.

People
Sidney Drell, physicist and founding chairman of the UC President’s Council on the National Laboratories, receives the University of California’s Presidential Medal for his extraordinary contributions to the university, the three U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories managed by UC, and the cause of science in the public interest.

High school seniors Christina Gwin and Sandra Oldaker of Amador Valley High School and Bobby Biswal of Monte Vista High School are the senior sweepstakes winners in this year’s Tri Valley Science & Engineering Fair.

Tony Carrano, associate director for Biology and Biotechnology Research Programs, announces that he will leave the Laboratory June 30 after 31 years of service to the Department of Energy.

Lab geochemist Roger D. Aines is recognized as one of the Top 25 Newsmakers in the construction industry by Engineering News-Record for spearheading the development of the Lab’s new steam-oxygen injection technology for cleaning petroleum contaminants.

Monica Barney, a UC Berkeley graduate student working in Chemistry & Materials Science, is one of 30 students nationwide selected to attend the 50th anniversary meeting of Nobel laureates held in June in Germany.

Operations
After a DOE complex-wide diversity stand-down the first week in April, Director Bruce Tarter says the Laboratory needs to "recommit to the goals and the outcomes" identified in the 1995 diversity survey.

In the Lab’s first Management Institute, 31 Lab managers have an opportunity to spend two days with senior managers, including Deputy Directors Bob Kuckuck and Jeff Wadsworth, who offered their perspectives on where the Lab is today, where it is headed and what kind of leaders are going to be needed to get there.

The Laboratory maintains an overall performance rating of "excellent" from the Department of Energy. The annual assessment includes appraisal of the Lab’s performance in science and technology as well as administration and operations.

The National Ignition Facility Programs Review Committee meets at the Laboratory to review progress on establishing a new baseline schedule and cost estimates for completing the laser project.
Verification of the Integrated Safety Management System moves into its second phase when a review team from the Department of Energy spends two weeks at the Lab assessing employees’ understanding of ISM information and practices.

Science and technology
The Laboratory and National Ignition Facility project receive a "very positive decision" when Secretary Richardson announces plans for additional funding for the completion of the full 192-beam laser facility.
Two parallel reviews of employee health issues are initiated as part of the Laboratory’s prevention efforts.

Health Services Director Dr. Jim Seward leads an effort to update knowledge of cancer incidence, the frequency with which Lab employees develop different types of cancer. In the second review, Mort Mendelsohn and Dan Moore of Biology & Biotechnology Research Programs begin an evaluation of all causes of LLNL employee mortality, including cancer.

A team of researchers unravels in one day’s workload the entire genome of a harmful bacterium, dubbed the "superbug," that is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections.

The National Ignition Facility gets another boost when the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Procurement recommends that an extra $95 million be provided for the laser project in the coming year.

A 15-ton magnet key to an international experiment for fusion energy research passes its initial operating test, engineers and colleagues from MIT and Japan report. One of the two magnet modules was designed and built by a team let by Lab engineer Raghavan Jayakumar.

The National Ignition Facility continues to have the unified support of the three weapons labs, despite press accounts suggesting the contrary.

An award from the Defense Department’s Defense Modeling and Simulation Office honors a computer code developed by the Laboratory for combat simulation.

People
David M. Cooper, associate director for Computation and the Lab’s Chief Information Officer, is named by Computerworld magazine as one of the "Premier 100 Information Technology Leaders for 2000."

More than 40 community leaders from the Tri-Valley area come to the Lab for a tour of the National Ignition Facility.

The Association of Black Laboratory employees recognizes four employees with Workforce Excellence Awards. This year’s recipients are physicist Ronnie Shepherd; computer scientist Booker Thomas; engineer Johnny Ellison; and engineer Tommy Smith, director of the Lab’s Affirmative Action and Diversity Program.

Employees across the Laboratory raise more than $16,000 to assist victims of the Cerro Grande fire in Los Alamos. The money is to go directly to assist employees of Los Alamos National Laboratory whose homes were lost or damaged.

Becky Failor, a division leader in Hazards Control, receives a Distinguished Alumni award from her undergraduate alma mater, Oakland University in Michigan.
Operations
For the third consecutive year, the Lab improves its overall safety record, cutting down on the number of accidents, the number of lost time incidents and the number of lost or restricted workdays.

Construction begins on a wildlife enhancement pool in the Drainage Retention Basin and may be a first step toward turning the basin into a natural ecosystem.

Protective Force Division’s Central Alarm Station re-establishes the Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) for all emergency systems at the Lab.

The Laboratory is confident in its ability to execute the NIF Project, Director Bruce Tarter and senior managers tell members of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board’s National Ignition Facility Task Force. The SEAB members are briefed on plans to complete the laser project under the full 192-beam option selected by Secretary Richardson.

The Federal Laboratory Consortium honors the Laboratory for success in transferring two new technologies to the commercial marketplace. The winning entries are Peregrine, which will improve cancer treatment, and LaserShot Peening, which will extend the life of critical metal parts such as aircraft engine fan blades.

Science and technology
Lab bioscientists complete a set of genetically based "signatures" for identifying strains of plague that could be used for public health diagnostics and as a tool to characterize a potential terrorist attack.

The Laboratory purchases a "plutonium oxide saltwasher" from the Russian Scientific Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, as part of U.S.-Russian Scientific Research Institute program activities. Once installed into the Lab’s Superblock, it is believed the equipment will provide a quicker and more efficient solution for preparing U.S. plutonium for immobilization.

The director of a Russian nuclear weapons plant visits the Lab to continue development of a collaboration that would have the Russian plant manufacture kidney dialysis supplies and equipment, using people and facilities formerly used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

The Human Genome Project public consortium, which includes the Joint Genome Institute, announces that is has assembled a working draft of the sequence of the human genome — the genetic blueprint for a human being.

People
Gen. John Shalikashvili, special adviser to both the president and secretary of state, meets with Director Bruce Tarter at the Lab to discuss verification and proliferation topics.

Charles Alcock, head of the Laboratory’s Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, is awarded the Beatrice Tinsley Prize for "innovative and original" work by the American Astronomical Society.

Don Correll, director of the Lab’s Science & Technology Education Program, is awarded Fusion Power Associates’ Special Award for Education for his dedication to science education.

Mark Herrmann, a post-doc working in X Division, is selected by the American Physical Society as this year’s recipient of the Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Plasma Physics.

More than 300 Lab inventors who earned 171 patents in 1998 and 1999 are honored for their cutting-edge work. The patents covered a broad range of technologies, including a body monitoring and imaging apparatus, a process for 3-D chip stacking, water-soluble laser dyes and a method for making thin carbon foam electrodes.

Operations
University of California President Richard Atkinson sends a letter to Secretary Richardson outlining several actions to strengthen security at the laboratories. The actions are based on insights on initial inquiries into the Los Alamos National Laboratory’s misplacement and recovery of two hard drives containing nuclear weapons information.

Secretary Richardson informally swore in Gen. John A. Gordon as the department’s first undersecretary for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Science & technology
Field testing begins for civilian health application of the hand-held bio-analyzer. The FDA will be testing seafood imports, health workers will test blood samples in Africa, and emergency services will evaluate the device for use in a bioterrorist attack. The tool was originally developed for the Department of Defense to detect biological agents on the battlefield.

General officers and others from the California National Guard Joint Staff review latest Q and R division technologies of NAI, including the liquid abrasive cutter.

Director Bruce Tarter updated UC Regents on the progress of major Laboratory programs, focusing on milestones in the National Ignition Facility, Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative and the Human Genome project.

People
Sen. Barbara Boxer interviews women from Livermore and Sandia on their contributions to the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science.

Association of Black Lab Employees hosts Eddie Faye Gates, speaking on studies of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot.
Three Lab employees, Katie Crooks, Vicki Cunniffe and Pam Smith, participate in the three-day, 60 mile Avon Breast Cancer walk from San Jose to San Francisco.

Melinda Lane and Charles Hargreaves are awarded the Lab’s undergraduate scholarships, allowing them to attend college full-time, tuition paid, for up to two years, while still earning their full-time salaries.

Operations
The Long Range Strategy Project releases the "2020 Foresight" report, a consensus of mid-career scientists forecasting what the Lab may be like in the years 2015 to 2020. The primary conclusion is that no matter what the future holds, LLNL will be a very different place than it is today.

The Engineering Manufac- turing & Services Group is officially registered with
the International Standards Organization as compliant with ISO 9002, a worldwide benchmark for assuring high quality and customer satisfaction in production, installation and service.

The Lab hosts explosives safety engineers and other explosives program representatives from 13 Department of Energy contractors and DOE area offices for DOE’s Explosives Safety Engineering Conference.

Directors from Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia national labs testify before Congress that they are responsible for the overall security of their labs.

A survey of local communities reveals that overall support of the Lab has increased significantly since the last survey in 1998. This survey reported that the Lab is seen as an important economic resource, safe, well managed, protective of national secrets and largely supported by local communities.

Screening committees get under way for three ADs and two senior management positions. The AD positions include the newly created Physics and Advanced Technologies, and Energy and Environment directorates, and Biology and Biotechnology Research Programs. In addition, screening committees are formed for the director positions of the University Relations Program and Laboratory Science and Technology Office. Rokaya al-Ayat would eventually be named director of LSTO in November.

Science & technology
Oboe 5, Livermore’s eighth subcritical experiment, is successfully conducted Aug. 18 at the Nevada Test Site as part of science-based stockpile stewardship.

Laboratory Directors Bruce Tarter, John Browne and Paul Robinson tell members of a House subcommittee that national security work is resulting in many technological breakthroughs at all three laboratories and must continue to be the focus of the labs in the future.

People
Roger Batzel, the long-time director whose stabilizing influence is credited with the Lab’s dramatic growth during the 1970s, dies July 26. He was 78.

More than 200 women from Livermore and Sandia labs turn out for a panel discussion aimed at female college and high school students working at the Lab. "Decisions for Success" features four successful women sharing the details of their lives and careers.

Dana Isherwood, former Lab legislative analyst, retells her successful journey to the Magnetic North Pole, traveling more than 250 miles by dogsled and skis.

Lon Freeman, triathlete and Lab budget analyst, places seventh in the Ironman USA race in Lace Placid, N.Y., earning a place in the Ironman race in Hawaii in October.

Katie Smith, a Lab Mail Services employee, is crowned 2000-2001 Livermore Rodeo Queen.
Director Emeritus Edward Teller addresses a group of 30 student participants in the annual Undergraduate Summer Institute, using an open, question-and-answer forum. Topics range from weather prediction to science in political policy.

Operations
A DOE validation review team hears the NIF Project can be built under the new schedule and budget baseline.

The Lab completes final preparation for the Integrated Safety Management (ISM) verification by DOE. The secretary of Energy requires that ISM be implemented at all DOE sites by Sept. 30.

The Environmental Protection Department reports that due to its heightened awareness campaign of ergonomic safety during 1998, the severity of injuries related to ergonomic causes was reduced from 134 lost and restricted workdays in 1997 to zero in 1999.

Thirty-seven people are arrested at the West Gate after demonstrating during the 55th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.

Auditors using computer hacker techniques begin testing Laboratory cyber security by seeking personal information from employees that could be used to access unclassified computer systems.

The Laboratory holds its second annual Diversity Day on the Green, a celebration of culture and heritage.
Rep. Ellen Tauscher lauds the Laboratory’s partnership with local school districts to promote science education. "This kind of partnership is what the 21st century is all about," Tauscher said.

Recent high school graduates who took summer jobs at the Lab as part of their prizes from the Tri Valley Science & Engineering Fair gain valuable work experience and develop professional relationships with future professors during their employment.

Science & technology
The Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative program receives the final shipment from IBM of the "ASCI White" supercomputers. Fourteen truckloads of computers and equipment are unloaded in Bldg. 451 over two days. In testing prior to delivery, ASCI White demonstrated a record computational capability of 12.3 teraflops (trillions of operations per second).

The first publicly released results from the B Factory experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) show promise for making or breaking long-held theories about why the universe contains far more matter than anti-matter.

The Waste Inspection Tomography Nondestructive Assay wins the only R&D Top 100 Award given to a Lab project this year. The project, under development for 10 years by Harry Martz, Pat Roberson and retiree David Camp, helps to determine the contents of radioactive waste barrels.

Los Alamos National Lab and Compaq Computer Corp. sign a contract worth more than $200 million for delivery of the SCI Q, which will be a 30 teraOPS machine with 12-trillion bytes of memory.

The Lab will house a key research component as part of a National Institutes of Health-funded, six-nation consortium of 13 institutions led by Los Alamos National Laboratory to help develop ways to fight tuberculosis.

A former Russian nuclear weapons manufacturing plant and Fresenius Medical Care, Inc., agree to the creation of a joint venture for high-quality, low-cost manufacture of kidney dialysis equipment.

Representatives from the Lab, including Ann Heywood and Jim Trebes, lead the negotiations under DOE’s Nuclear Cities Initiative. This marks the first time any Western company has worked with a Russian nuclear weapons plant.

People
Engineering AD Spiros Dimolitsas is appointed to the board of directors of Maxoptix Corp., a Fremont-based leader in optical data-storage technology.

Some 101 high school and community college science teachers attend the first Edward Teller Science & Technology Education Symposium, meeting for two days of intensive training, hands-on research and laboratory tours. They each took home a notebook full of lesson plans and attended talks by Director Emeritus Edward Teller and Nobel laureate Steven Chu.

The LLESA Vintage Vehicle show draws street rods, muscle machines, classic cars and motorcycles.
Chelle Clements, a senior scientific technologist in B Division, and other Lab employees help the homeless at the East Bay Stand-Down at Camp Parks in Dublin.

Jim Ferreira, a scanning electron microscopist from Chemical and Material Science, hosts a display of his black and white photographic art at Wente Vineyards Estate Winery. His work is regularly seen in fine-art galleries and coffee-houses on both sides of the Bay, with a number of pieces held in various collections in several states.

Operations
Gen. John Gordon, the administrator of the newly created National Nuclear Security Administrations, visits the Lab and Sandia to learn about the programs. He calls the Lab’s work in the Stockpile Stewardship Program "too important to fail," and pledges himself as an advocate for the weapons laboratories, their managers and employees.

Budget uncertainty, research and development funding cuts, tightened security restrictions and negative publicity are making the national security laboratories less desirable places to work — for both current and future employees, top lab managers tell congressional representatives at a hearing of the House Commerce Committee’s Energy and Power Subcommittee in Albuquerque, N.M.

In a $230 million cost-plus-award contract, Jacobs Engineering Groups Inc. is selected to build and install the laser system infrastructure for the National Ignition Facility.

Lab employees who work with human subjects receive new guidelines from the National Institutes of Health, ensuring safety in some of the most technical and cutting-edge work at the Lab.

NIF hosts a "life after Lehman" meeting to provide an update on construction, budget and schedule for the superlaser.

Stockpile stewardship, especially the National Ignition Facility, Laboratory Directed Research and Development, and travel will see significant funding increases, thanks to a $23.6 billion Energy and Water Appropriations Conference Report.

In an effort to recruit more young scientists to the Lab, Defense Technologies Engineering Division takes in summer interns for the first time. The six students and two mechanical technicians from various universities were able to work on several unclassified projects for 12 weeks.

The LLNL Integrated Safety Management System is verified as being effectively implemented, a DOE review team informed Lab management.

The Lab kicks off the "Science 2001" lecture series for the public, starting with "Space Technology" by Aprille Ericsson-Jackson of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

The Lab is called on to cut power usage during California’s heat wave and subsequent energy shortages.
The Lab holds a memorial for Director Emeritus Roger Batzel, who died in August. Director Bruce Tarter announces a bronze sculpture of Batzel will be placed in Bldg. 132 and a plaque