NM’s National Lab managers rated ‘very good’
Lab Director Thom Mason, LANL photo.
Altogether, Triad received “excellent” ratings in four categories. In addition to leadership, Triad earned the top rating in global nuclear security, strategic partnership projects objectives, and science technology and engineering.
Thom Mason, director at LANL and president of Triad, said he was pleased with the result of the evaluation and with the way the lab was able to respond to the outbreak.
“It was encouraging to see that, through what was a very difficult and challenging year with the COVID pandemic, our efforts to kind of keep everyone safe and execute the high-priority items that we had to get done, was recognized. It does represent, I think, a significant improvement over the year prior,” he said. (Full Story)
Also from Albuquerque Business First
Laboratory spent $413 million with New Mexico small businesses in FY 2020
Española-based Performance Maintenance Inc., won the DOE Award for HUB-Zone Small Business of the Year, LANL photo.
New numbers for fiscal year 2020 show Los Alamos National Laboratory’s big impact on New Mexico’s economy, as the Laboratory employed 12,367 people for a total of $1.24 billion in salaries and contracted with small businesses statewide for $413 million.
“Los Alamos National Laboratory is a major economic driver in the region, and we are committed to strengthening local companies and growing the local workforce,” said Thom Mason, director. “Perhaps the most admirable gain in FY20 was our contracts with New Mexico small businesses, which were up 43 percent. I am confident we will build on these efforts in 2021.” (Full Story)
Half the world’s supply of element 99 used to reveal its chemical secrets
From Chemistry World.
The latest efforts produced only 400ng of element 99, half of which went to a team led by Rebecca Abergel from the University of California, Berkeley, Corwin Booth from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Stosh Kozimor from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Despite working with less than 200ng of the element, the researchers managed to put einsteinium through x-ray absorption measurements, revealing its coordination chemistry and spectroscopic behaviour for the first time.
After preparing the einsteinium complex at Berkeley, team member Korey Carter then drove the precious – and hazardous – sample for an hour to the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource. Once there, handling half of the world’s supply of einsteinium was ‘absolutely terrifying’, recalls Kozimor. ‘It takes a well-rehearsed team and steady nerves.’ (Full Story)
Also from Live Science
How a US agency hopes to predict disease just like the weather
Covid-19, NIH image.
The US Centers for Disease Control has flirted with the idea of epidemic forecasting for several years, harnessing the computing power of the Los Alamos National Laboratory to predict the spread of flu and mosquito-borne illnesses such as West Nile fever.
The journal Nature also applauded the initiative. It said every country should similarly consider setting up an “independent body that provides [disease] forecasts using advanced computational power, and the best available data”. Covid-19, however, shows that predicting contagion means joining the dots across national borders. (Full Story)
New Mexico officials adjusting to year-round wildfire seasons
Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexican photo.
As wildfires threaten to grow in frequency and severity, Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers are devising new computer models to better predict how fires might ignite and spread, based on weather, landscape, debris buildup and even how similar in size the trees are.
Knowing more precisely how fire will react to the environment and weather will aid crews both in extinguishing wildfires and preventing prescribed burns from getting out of control, said Adam Atchley, research scientist at Los Alamos lab.
For instance, fires will spread faster in forests with similar-sized trees and clearings because the wind, which fans the flames, can gust more freely in these settings, Atchley said. (Full Story)
Forests with diverse tree sizes and small clearings hinder wildland fire growth
A new 3D analysis shows that wildland fires flare up in forests populated by similar-sized trees or checkerboarded by large clearings and slow down where trees are more varied. The research can help fire managers better understand the physics and dynamics of fire to improve fire-behavior forecasts.
"We knew fuel arrangement affected fire but we didn't know how," said Adam Atchley, lead author on a Los Alamos National Laboratory-led study published today in the International Journal of Wildland Fire. "Traditional models that represent simplified fuel structures can't account for complex wind and varied fire response to actual forest conditions. Our study incorporated a varied, 3D forest and wind behavior. (Full Story)
To subscribe to Los Alamos Press Highlights, please e-mail listmanager@lanl.gov and include the words subscribe PressHighlights in the body of your email message; to unsubscribe, include unsubscribe PressHighlights.
Please visit us at www.lanl.gov
