NNSA Administrator visits Sandia’s California campus
NNSA Administrator and DOE Under Secretary for Nuclear Security Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty visited Sandia’s California campus on Sept. 30 to tour the new SPEAR facility and receive an update on the Labs’ COVID-19 response efforts.
Jackie Chen named DOE fellow
Jackie Chen, whose work on fundamental turbulence-chemistry interactions in combustion helped advance the design of automotive, gas turbine and jet engines, has been selected by DOE as a distinguished scientist fellow — one of only eight researchers in the nation to hold the distinction.
California students win 2020 DOE National Science Bowl
A team of students from Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, California, won the 2020 DOE National Science Bowl in June. The National Science Bowl, a Jeopardy-like competition for U.S. high school and middle school students, tests their knowledge and academic ability in all areas of science and mathematics.
Town hall presents options for working parents
The Integrated Security Solutions division held a town hall on Aug. 11 for parents who are balancing work and childcare responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event covered several topics affecting working parents, including schedule flexibility, the vacation donation program, expanded open enrollment options and support for caregivers.
‘Confounding’ pandemic brings California doctor to the fore
One of the most consistent voices heard this year during our new reality shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic has been that of Dr. Dan Azar, Sandia’s California site physician.
Marshaling resources to fight COVID-19
As Sandia and the nation came to terms with a new, socially distanced reality, researchers within the Labs’ Integrated Security Solutions Division were working to understand the biology of the novel coronavirus, learn how the human body responds to infection by SARS CoV-2 and model how COVID-19 spreads in a population.
Confronting COVID-19 and getting back to work — together
The novel approach of Integrated Service Delivery being practiced in several centers within Sandia’s Integrated Security Solutions Division was tested to its utmost this year, as departments had to suddenly figure out how to accommodate a remote workforce and then just as suddenly overcome dozens of challenges to bring people back to work safely on site.
California site expands footprint
To accommodate Sandia's significant increase in hiring to meet mission needs coupled with the need to ensure workforce safety amid the pandemic, leaders at the Livermore site are taking a multipronged approach, including continued telecommuting, creating flexible “kiosk hubs,” constructing new facilities and temporarily leasing office space near the campus.
A year of change
Lab News sat down for a conversation with Associate Labs Director Andy McIlroy, head of the Integrated Security Solutions Division, as he starts his second year in that role following a year permanently marked by a new reality for Sandia and the nation.
Expanding testing capacity for Sandia weapons modernization programs
The Sandia Programs Engineering and Assembly Research facility, or SPEAR, is the newest facility in nuclear weapons systems engineering at Sandia’s California site, expanding the Labs’ capacity to assemble and electrically test nuclear weapons components and systems.