The Board of Regents of Texas A&M University, one of the senior partners on incoming Los Alamos National Laboratory Manager Triad National Security, on Thursday said it appointed Katherine Banks vice chancellor for engineering and national laboratories.
The move reflects Banks’ ascent to Triad’s governing board, an A&M spokesperson wrote in an email Monday. Banks was formerly vice chancellor for engineering and remains dean of the system’s College of Engineering.
Texas A&M University is the only senior Triad partner without a representative among the senior laboratory staff the consortium has identified on its website.
Meanwhile, the number and identities of the remaining Triad board members have not be revealed publicly. Triad plans to disclose the members’ names and affiliations “after our initial Board meeting which is planned for the end of the month,” a company spokesperson wrote in an email Tuesday.
The Triad spokesperson did not immediately know the day for which this meeting is scheduled.
Triad’s senior partners are: Battelle Memorial Institute, longtime Los Alamos manager the University of California, and Texas A&M University. The company is set to take over management of the main U.S. nuclear-weapons laboratory on Nov. 1 under a National Nuclear Security Administration contract potentially worth more than $20 billion over a decade, with options. The contract’s base is worth about $10 billion over five years. The deal allows for up to $50 million in annual fees.
Triad displaces Los Alamos National Security, which had been on the job since 2006 under a contract recompeted well before it would have expired, following a series of nuclear safety and security mishaps. The incumbent consists of the University of California, Bechtel National, BWX Technologies, and AECOM.
