Associate Labs Director Toby Townsend sees a world of possibility that, until he was appointed the leader of Sandia’s Deterrence, Science and Energy Division earlier this year, he didn’t know existed.
“There’s always something else that we’re doing that I didn’t know we did,” Toby said. “I have taken the opportunity to make my way around and meet people doing research and engineering projects that I was unaware of before taking this seat. I’m already incredibly proud of and love to brag about our team and what they’re doing.”
Toby has spent almost 30 years at the Labs, starting as an intern in 1999 before holding leadership roles in Sandia’s space and nuclear nonproliferation programs, among others. While he is considered an expert in nuclear deterrence circles, his focus now is on what’s next for the division and the Labs.
The era of artificial intelligence
“It’s a pretty exciting time to be at the Labs and to be alive, quite honestly, watching the explosion of, and what I’d say is the revolution of, AI,” he said. “I think it’ll be foundational on the research side, on the engineering side and on the operations side.”
Toby added that while the computational capabilities are manifesting themselves right now, other discoveries are happening at an eye-opening pace.
“Ten years ago, we would have thought it was impossible, and it would have taken us decades to accomplish something that we — the human race — can now accomplish in days,” he said, adding that there are also security issues to prepare for. “In the national security lens, it is a bit concerning what an adversary might utilize this technology to do.”
Toby also sees the ethics of how we use AI, recalling Sandia’s history in responsible development and stewardship of defensive technologies.
“Sandia has had to think deeply, for its entire existence, about creating technology, specifically nuclear weapons and the always-never conversation,” he said, referring to the standard that weapons should always work when ordered by the U.S. president and never any other time. “It’s deeply ingrained and embedded in us. When we think about an emerging technology, we think about how might it be used and how do we want it used? Our history gives us a strong foundation to stand upon when we’re thinking of things like AI, biomanufacturing and these new emerging capabilities and technologies. I’m grateful that culturally, that’s how we attack and look at problems.”
Change is challenging, not fearsome
That knowledge and belief in Sandia is how Toby knows that whatever changes in our world occur, the Labs are prepared to lead.
“I watched us pivot to be responsive after 9/11 to the counterterrorism mission. I watched us as an institution rise to that occasion and contribute in meaningful ways,” he said. “I watched us as an institution manifest through COVID-19. We rose to the occasion. We found new ways, we embraced virtual and remote work, and we continued to deliver every day in the midst of a pandemic.”
Sandia, Toby said, will embrace the changes being brought by AI and other emerging technologies, as they will allow the Labs to deliver the mission more efficiently.
Division in the lead
In fact, Toby sees people around the California and New Mexico sites who are focused only on creating the nation of the future.
“I think the power of being a federally funded research and development center in a national laboratory is that we get to work on the precipice of science, on foundational science — activities that we don’t yet know exactly how they’ll be implemented or how they will make life better for everyone,” he said. “The cool thing about Sandia being predominantly an engineering laboratory is that as our scientists make those discoveries, they are comingled with engineers here that drive those discoveries towards application.”
That is even more obvious in the Deterrence, Science and Energy Division he leads — a division that, as its name implies, works on programs and projects that cut across every Sandia mission.
“That is the kind of ecosystem that makes us special: We have fundamental breakthroughs and then, almost through osmosis I would say, that application-specific drive to build product by our engineers enables us to take those breakthroughs and get them into the hands of the people who need them,” Toby said.
Toby pointed specifically at the newest nuclear deterrence modernization program led from the Livermore site, which is being developed to pair with the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile, SLCM-N.
“It’s pretty exciting to get to partner with Lawrence (Livermore National Laboratory) on a Navy system, and to be trusted and bestowed the responsibility to deliver a critical tool to meet a national emerging need at a rapid pace that is going to take an incredible amount of creativity and a lot of long hours,” he said. “The fact that the division was trusted by the Navy, NNSA and Sandia at large with that responsibility makes me incredibly proud of who we are and how we showed up for the last decade to earn that trust. And I know that we will deliver.”
New reality, same conclusion
As Toby continues to meet as many people in his division as he can and learn about the many projects he now is responsible for, his conclusion is the same one he came to more than 25 years ago when he began his Sandia journey.
“I am optimistic that this division will continue to have regular breakthroughs,” he said. “It brings a smile to my face every day knowing that I’m part of an institution and in the organization that on a weekly basis is doing something once thought impossible.”