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Science & Technology road map to the future

Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of interviews with key leaders of the 100-day science and technology road mapping project. The project centers on seven focus areas: weapons and defense science; nuclear counterterrorism and forensics; cyber and space security and intelligence; biosecurity; regional climate modeling and impacts; LIFE — Laser Inertial Fusion-Fission Energy (LIFE); and advanced laser optical systems and applications. Today, hear from Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, who is spearheading the project.

 

Tomás Díaz de la Rubia is the Laboratory’s chief research and development officer, overseeing LLNL's science and technology investment portfolio. He also serves as the principal deputy in the Science and Technology Principal Directorate. He joined LLNL as a postdoc in 1989. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the State University of New York at Albany.

What is the 100-day plan?

The 100-day plan is an effort to create a road map that looks at the future of the Laboratory from the perspective of science and technology goals that we can establish in order to position the Laboratory to be the place to go in the country to meet some of the key national priorities of the 21st century.

We’re focused on identifying key areas in national security, global security and economic security that align well with our strengths and capabilities so that we can bring our core competencies -- the strength of our people, the strength of our facilities and our capabilities -- to bear on some of these key central issues of the 21st century. For example, maintaining the nuclear deterrent but at the same time thinking about how to prevent the potential of nuclear terrorism; evolving our capabilities in high-performance computing to understanding how the cyber space environment can be protected in the 21st century, as cyber security becomes more and more important; and understanding how the nexus of energy and climate is going to affect society over the next few decades. What can this Laboratory do to position itself to really be a premier national laboratory in the areas of energy and climate?

Why do we need a plan?

The reason we need a 100-day plan is that we are looking at taking our strengths from the 21st century mission of the Laboratory in nuclear weapons and certifying the stockpile and applying those same capabilities not only to the continuing mission of nuclear deterrence, but also to the evolving and emerging missions of the 21st century. It’s by creating this plan that we will be able to identify the major areas of research and the major emerging needs for the country and how this Laboratory can have the most impact.

Where do you see us in five years?

In five years, we can be the kind of Laboratory that is positioned to provide the country with the innovative science and technology that leads to sound policy advice for policy makers, based on strong science and technology that allow us to protect the country and our allies from the major national security, energy and environmental threats of the 21st century.

What do you hope to accomplish?

The ultimate goal of this planning process is to create a road map in which all Laboratory employees will see themselves as part of a vision, as part of a new mission for the Laboratory, so that when future generations looks at us 50 years from now and they look at the next 50 years of the Laboratory, they say there was a plan and there was a vision to address some of the major imperatives that the country and the world were facing at the beginning of the 21st century. And through that plan and that vision this Laboratory remained one the premier national laboratories in the country. That’s what I’d like us to accomplish: To create that vision and develop the plan that will propel us forward to meet the many challenges of the future.

Dec. 12, 2008

Contact

Anne M. Stark
[email protected]