Extraordinary people make the Lab an extraordinary place. Explore their stories here.
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Fatima Woody was just 17 and a student at Pojoaque Valley High School when she first started her career as a Los Alamos Neutron Science Center receptionist. Now she's in a crucial role that keeps plutonium pit production and other mission processes operating with as little interruption as possible. Read Nowabout the article: Fatima WoodyAt work
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In the community
Every day it seemed, the elementary school called Orlando Miera to tell him, once again, that a few kids had picked on his 8-year-old son. The constant bullying had distracted Orlando's boy from his classroom work, but mostly Orlando noticed a change in his child's mood, as if all his son's joy had been robbed.Read Nowabout the article: Orlando MieraOff the clock
Held each year on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California, the parade is an annual tradition worldwide. This year, the Los Alamos National Laboratory was well represented with Morag Smith, division leader of Nuclear Engineering and Nonproliferation, and her children, William and Sarah Parkes, performing in the iconic parade. Read Nowabout the article: Morag SmithOff the clock
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An occupational health nurse at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Shannon Griffin first traveled to Olanchito, Honduras, in 2006. She’d come to the town of 100,000 people as the only nurse on a team of doctors that had volunteered to provide free medical care to residents. Shannon figured they’d help a few dozen families and then be on their way. But after the team set up inside a clinic, Shannon opened the door to the courtyard and saw men, women and children camped outside and a line that wrapped around the block. Read Nowabout the article: Shannon GriffinAt work
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I was twenty years into a successful career in biology when I decided to change direction, for the second time. Having grown up in lush, green New England, my garden in New Mexico could never quite compare, and I had grown acutely aware of the impacts of drought on my environment.Read Nowabout the article: Babs MarroneIn the community
Anna Llobet, an experimental physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, is the founder of the Summer Physics Camp for Young Women—a two-week science camp that gives New Mexican and Hawaiian students a chance to explore careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. “I believe it is extremely important that we bring the love and thrill of knowledge to everyone and make it easier for marginalized or underrepresented communities to find role models,” she says.Read Nowabout the article: Anna LlobetAt work
I do my best work when I maintain an uncomfortable balance between two things: studying fundamental nuclear astrophysics—what happens in stars—and applying nuclear physics to answer mission-relevant questions—understanding what happens during nuclear explosions and within nuclear reactors. Read Nowabout the article: Aaron CoutureIn the community
“My experiences in a harsh place like Alaska have served me well,” explains Kane Fisher, a Yupik Eskimo who now works at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “It was a place where we played as hard as we worked. I grew up hunting and fishing, taught by my father, who was a school teacher.”Read Nowabout the article: Kane FisherAt work
A skinny high school senior toes the free throw line, bounces the ball twice and glances at the scoreboard: 59-60 with four seconds on the clock. It’s 1980 and the Los Alamos Hilltoppers boys’ basketball team is playing at Albuquerque High in the finals — the winning team goes to the New Mexico State Tournament. He sinks both shots.Read Nowabout the article: Gilbert RatliffAt work
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Technical Area 55 at Los Alamos National Laboratory includes some of the most secure facilities in the nation, including the Radiological Laboratory Utility Office Building, where more than 400 employees find themselves in and out of on any given day. For that building and others in the same area, Hermelinda Coronado is well known for conducting her work as a member of the janitorial staff with excellence, integrity — and an ever-present smile.Read Nowabout the article: Hermelinda CoronadoAt work
From a young age, Los Alamos National Laboratory employee Loretta Ortega picked up the meaning of hard work, discipline and respect as she helped her father and siblings on their ranch with everything from feeding animals and tractor work to helping with equipment maintenance. Her father never differentiated between the boys or girls in her family. In his eyes, they were all capable of doing everything on the ranch.Read Nowabout the article: Loretta OrtegaAt work
Deb puts on her glasses and tiptoes down the hall to her daughter’s bedroom. She’s relieved; the sound of her alarm clock hadn’t reached Blake’s small ears. Deb heads to the kitchen for coffee. She decides to get ready for work first, then wake her daughter and begin the mad dash to daycare and then on to Los Alamos.Read Nowabout the article: Deb LewisAt work
