Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
3/28/2014
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has turned to a familiar face in its search for a new leader, tapping longtime lab official Bill Goldstein this week as the lab’s 12th director. Goldstein, 57, a 29-year lab veteran who rose through the institution’s ranks after starting as a theoretical physicist during the waning years of the Cold War, takes over the top spot at the lab from Bret Knapp, who has led the institution in an acting capacity since Parney Albright abruptly announced his resignation in late October. Goldstein’s first day will be March 31. “We need somebody who can hit the ground running right now, who understands not only the nonproliferation mission and of course the basis for nuclear stockpile stewardship, but there are very large problems in his scientific and technology background,” said Norm Pattiz, the chairman of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, and the leader of the lab’s director search committee.
Goldstein’s expertise “we felt buttresses our efforts in areas like alternative forms of energy, climate modeling and all of the very, very important challenges that face not only the nation but the world today. We felt that he was the right guy to step in and be able to have immediate impact because he already is,” Pattiz said. Pattiz said Knapp, who withdrew from the competition for the lab director spot earlier this month due to health reasons, would return to his spot as the head of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s weapons program once the transition to Goldstein is complete.
Pattiz said four candidates were interviewed for the job after the lab received applications from more than 100 candidates. Pattiz didn’t say what other candidates were interviewed for the job, but they are believed to include former Sandia National Laboratories official Joan Woodard, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Deputy Director for Science and Technology Steve Ashby, and Sandia Vice President Jill Hruby. “Bill was selected as Laboratory director because of his proven scientific leadership and senior management experience across a broad range of Laboratory programs, his passion for the Lab’s mission and people, and his ability to strategically manage the breadth of Livermore’s science and technology capabilities and operations to meet critical national security needs,” Pattiz said in a statement. “He is a respected and trusted scientist among Laboratory managers and employees and with the DOE, NNSA and other key government sponsors and academic and industrial partners.”
A Diverse Background
Goldstein has headed up the lab’s Science and Technology Directorate since 2012, but he’s had his hands in much of the lab’s mission work in his 29 years at the institution, playing a large role in the Stockpile Stewardship Program as well as in research activities at the National Ignition Facility. “I’ve worked in pretty much all of the major programs at the laboratory,” Goldstein said, adding that he has “had the privilege of making technical contributions across them, so I think I have a very strong background, a strong understanding of the science and technology that’s needed to be successful in the range of the laboratories’ missions and the range of its work.”
While the lab’s main focus will remain on its nuclear weapons work, Goldstein suggested that the lab’s other national security work and work on other missions would continue to expand. “I think the lab is going to continue to increase the national security missions that it impacts,” he said. “I think that the range and the kind of threats that the nation faces are changing and growing and while we continue to play a major role in ensuring strategic deterrence and the safety, security and reliability of the stockpile, we have to be able to respond to national needs in a range of areas and I think we’re up to that and we’re going to probably do that in an increasing way.”
‘We Are Committed to Achieving Ignition’
Pattiz also noted that Goldstein was instrumental in helping chart a new path for NIF and expanding the facility for academic and scientific users after the lab missed achieving ignition in 2012, and Goldstein voiced support for the lab’s signature experimental facility. “NIF’s operation is critical to the lab, and it’s very important to the nation and to the stockpile stewardship program,” he said. “We are committed to achieving ignition and understanding what it takes to do that on NIF. It’s important to realize that right now, having not yet achieve ignition… important contributions to Stockpile Stewardship and has actually been doing it since it turned on in 2009. And those contributions are important to the stewardship program, it’s important to continuing to understand the physics that’s important to the program and it’s equally important in training and in bringing the right workforce into this program to ensure that Stockpile Stewardship meets the needs of the nation into the future.”
