This issue of National Security Science focuses on the state—New Mexico—where Los Alamos National Laboratory is located. In the following pages, you’ll read about the Laboratory’s work and partnerships that span the Land of Enchantment—from clean-energy efforts in the Four Corners area to transuranic waste storage near Carlsbad. This issue also highlights the Laboratory’s many Albuquerque-based partners (including Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base), our academic connections at many colleges and universities, and our colleagues at Spaceport America and White Sands Missile Range who are critical to the success of our flight-testing program.
Of course, the Laboratory’s largest impact is local, which I can speak to personally. I grew up in a close-knit community about 50 miles northeast of Los Alamos. As a kid, that distance seemed very far—until one day in high school when a teacher said we were taking a field trip to the Lab’s Bradbury Science Museum. Little did I know that field trip would change my life. That visit sparked my interest in science and technology. I began participating in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs at the Laboratory. Fast forward nearly 30 years, and I’ve made a career here.
Moving from student to employee isn’t unusual at Los Alamos. Every summer, the Laboratory hosts hundreds of students, many of whom are eventually hired on as staff members following graduation. Whether employees are native New Mexicans, like me, or they come from other corners of the country and even the world, they come here to support national and global security and pursue meaningful careers.
The work we do at the Laboratory is like no other. In the Weapons Engineering associate directorate, we ensure and sustain credible scientific and engineering expertise in support of the nation’s deployed nuclear weapons stockpile. We work in areas of high explosives, weapons assembly, production engineering, ground and flight testing, hydrodynamics, and many other interdisciplinary fields.
Many people who don’t plan to settle in New Mexico end up committed to both the Laboratory and the Land of Enchantment. That was certainly the case for Norris Bradbury, the Lab’s second director (and the Bradbury Science Museum’s namesake). Bradbury came to Los Alamos for a short-term position and ended up retiring from the Lab more than a quarter-century later. You can read more about his legacy in this article.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was, of course, our first director, and he’s often quoted as saying “my two great loves are physics and New Mexico.” Although I am an engineer, not a physicist, I still appreciate his sentiment, and I hope that you discover the magic of both the Laboratory and New Mexico in these pages. ★
