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Threat preparedness
Franklin Miller awarded Livermore’s 2024 John S. Foster Medal
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Director Kim Budil today announced that the 2024 John S. Foster, Jr. Medal is awarded to Franklin Miller, a principal at The Scowcroft Group. The ninth recipient of the prestigious Foster Award, Miller is recognized for his exceptional and inspirational career dedicated to national security, defense policy and international…
Lab team surveys Site 300 for hotspots
In the mid-afternoon of Saturday, June 1, the Corral Fire ignited near the Lab’s Site 300. It made headlines for days and kicked off this year’s fire season. The blaze raced across more than 14,000 acres in just 24 hours, incinerated a structure and badly burned two fire personnel. Early Sunday morning, the Lab’s Associate Principal Deputy Director Sandra Brereton reached…
When experiments go quiet: maintaining the National Ignition Facility
For two weeks last April, the lasers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility stopped firing. Experiments may have been on pause, but the facility was anything but quiet. “To do world-class science, you need a world-class facility. And you can’t just maintain that facility, you must anticipate problems and seek out improvements,” said Stanley…
Signal and image science community comes together for annual workshop
Nearly 150 members of the signal and image science community recently came together to discuss the latest advances in the field and connect with colleagues, friends and potential collaborators at the 28th annual Center for Advanced Image and Signal Science (CASIS) workshop. Held at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center (UCLCC) for the first time, the…
LLNL and BridgeBio announce trials for supercomputing-discovered cancer drug
In a substantial milestone for supercomputing-aided drug design, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and BridgeBio Oncology Therapeutics (BridgeBio) today announced clinical trials have begun for a first-in-class medication that targets specific genetic mutations implicated in many types of cancer. The development of the new drug — BBO-8520 — is the result of…
DOE, LLNL take center stage at inaugural artificial-intelligence expo
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Director Kim Budil and other LLNL staff joined Department of Energy (DOE) Deputy Secretary David Turk, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Jill Hruby, DOE Under Secretary for Science and Innovation Geraldine Richmond, DOE Director of the Office of Critical and Emerging Technologies Helena Fu, U.S…
FAA awards first approval for drone swarm testing
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Autonomous Sensors team has received the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) first and — to date — only certificate of authorization (COA) allowing autonomous drone swarming exercises on the Lab main campus. These flights will test swarm controls and sensor payloads used in a variety of national security applications…
LLNL leads successful execution of subcritical experiment in Nevada
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently led the successful execution of the first U.S. subcritical experiment (SCE) since 2021 at the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation (PULSE) facility, formerly known as the U1a Complex, at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS). The last LLNL-led SCE was in February 2019. The experiment —…
GUIDE team develops approach to redesign antibodies against viral pandemics
In a groundbreaking development for addressing future viral pandemics, a multi-institutional team involving Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers has successfully combined an artificial intelligence (AI)-backed platform with supercomputing to redesign and restore the effectiveness of antibodies whose ability to fight viruses has been compromised by…
Richard W. Mies awarded Livermore’s 2023 John S. Foster Medal
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Kim Budil today announced that the 2023 John S. Foster, Jr. Medal is awarded to retired U.S. Navy Admiral Richard W. Mies. The eighth recipient of the prestigious Foster Award, Mies has served as a member of the LLNL Board of Governors since 2004 and is recognized for his exceptional and inspirational career dedicated to…
Scorpius Accelerator: 24 line-replaceable units mark major milestone
Members of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL’s) Advanced Sources and Detectors (ASD) Scorpius accelerator team recently marked a major milestone in the project — the delivery of 24 line-replaceable units (LRUs), known as pulsers, forming a complete unit cluster. The LRUs will power the Scorpius electron beam accelerator, which will capture multiple X-ray…
LLNL, Nuclear Science and Security Consortium host workshop
A score of top-ranked university students from around the nation received a one-day “crash course” in some of the critical nuclear science and nonproliferation missions of the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) at an event held earlier this month at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Twenty students participated in…
Lab’s Tom Ramos reflects on ‘From Berkeley to Berlin’
Physicist Tom Ramos has had several roles for the past 40 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He served as a member of the nuclear team that developed the X-ray laser for President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, he supported United States arms control negotiations for START, and over a span of seventeen years he created and ran a program for the…
The people of stockpile stewardship are the key to LLNL’s success
The last nuclear test, code-named Divider, took place 30 years ago, on Sept. 23, 1992. That year, President Bush declared a temporary moratorium on nuclear testing, which became permanent during the Clinton administration. This ending of the era of nuclear testing was also the beginning of stockpile stewardship. Leaders from the Department of Energy (DOE), and Lawrence…
Scientific discovery for stockpile stewardship
Scientific discovery during the Stockpile Stewardship Program maintains confidence in the nuclear deterrent without testing, brings other benefits The last nuclear test, code-named Divider, took place 30 years ago, on September 23, 1992. That year, President Bush declared a temporary moratorium on nuclear testing, which became permanent during the Clinton administration…
Developing technology to keep the nuclear stockpile safe, secure and reliable
The last nuclear test, code-named Divider, took place 30 years ago, on Sept. 23, 1992. That year, President Bush declared a temporary moratorium on nuclear testing, which became permanent in 1995, during the Clinton administration. This ending of the era of nuclear testing coincided with a Presidential announcement of the beginning of stockpile stewardship. As the decision…
National security community honors Miriam John as 2022 Foster Medal recipient
Department of Energy (DOE) Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Jill Hruby joined fellow luminaries in the national nuclear security community at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) on Sept. 8 to honor Miriam “Mim” John, recipient of the 2022 John S. Foster, Jr. Medal. John, vice president emerita of Sandia National Laboratories, became the first woman awarded…
Lab researchers and collaborators to develop new vaccine against three biothreat pathogens
Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and three other institutions are seeking to develop a multi-pathogen vaccine that will protect against three bacterial biothreat pathogens. Led by LLNL, the team includes disease experts from the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNMHSC), the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med)…
Lab’s ACT-UP awards focus on collaborative university research
With a focus on increasing joint research efforts between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and universities, the Lab’s Weapon Physics and Design (WPD) Academic Collaboration Team University Program (ACT-UP) has presented this year’s ACT-UP awards. Now in its third year, the ACT-UP awards were created to encourage and advance strategic partnerships among universities…
Making it count: Rebuilding infrastructure at the Nuclear Counting Facility
When Daniel Martin put the finishing touches on an autonomous vehicle robot, complete with an ultrasonic sensor to detect and evade obstacles, he knew he wanted to become an engineer. A high school student at the time, he was fascinated by the design and functionality of robots. Fast forward several years, and Martin is now a second-year electrical engineering Ph.D…
