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Strategic Deterrence

Bruce E. Warner selected principal associate director, Global Security

Bruce Warner has been named principal associate director of Global Security at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Director Parney Albright announced Thursday. Warner takes over the position from Albright, who stepped down as the Global Security leader after he was selected as the 11th Lab director last October. Warner had been serving in an acting capacity since…

Journal article written by Lab employee, others wins 'paper of the year'

An article written by an LLNL scientist and five other researchers about remediating an American airport after a chemical warfare attack has been named "Risk Management Paper of the Year" for 2011 by the journal Human and Ecological Risk Assessment (HERA). In selecting the chemical remediation paper as the year's top article, the editors of HERA wrote, "This paper gives…

New research shows brain injuries from blasts similar to football impacts

In an advance that may someday provide health benefits for soldiers and athletes, a team of researchers has discovered a mechanism that could be the cause of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in blast-exposed soldiers. The breakthrough study, published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine , finds that the brain injuries suffered by soldiers from improvised…

Nimble Titan 12: an international missile defense exercise

Just four days after North Korea's failed three-stage missile launch, a pre-scheduled international missile defense exercise got under way at a high-tech conference center in southern Virginia. Participants from 14 nations, and observers from such organizations as NATO, spent four days planning political, military, and civil defense responses to scenarios involving mock…

White captures award for nuclear forensics work

For the second straight quarter, a Laboratory employee has received an award from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for his work in post-detonation nuclear forensics. The most recent winner is Lab physicist Roger White, a designer in B-Division from the Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI) Directorate and a principal investigator for nuclear forensics design…

Rodgers garners award for nuclear forensics work

Lab geophysicist Arthur Rodgers has received an award from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) for his work in nuclear forensics. A researcher in the Atmospheric, Earth & Energy Division of the Physical & Life Sciences Directorate, Rodgers was named the "top contributor of the quarter" for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 (October-December 2011) for a…

Ten scientists named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff

Ten Laboratory researchers have been named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff (DMTS) for their extraordinary scientific and technical contributions to the Laboratory and its missions as acknowledged by their professional peers and the larger community. Jim Candy of the Engineering Directorate, John Castor of the Weapons and Complex Integration Principal Directorate,…

Roberts wins NNSA defense program award

Don Roberts, of the Lab's Weapons and Complex Integration Directorate, is the latest recipient of the National Nuclear Security Administration's Defense Programs' Employee of the Quarter Award. Roberts, a Design Group Leader in B Division, was recognized for "leading a multidisciplinary, international team in the first-ever Insensitive High Explosive velocimetry pin…

Advance by Lawrence Livermore scientists makes possible near-instantaneous DNA analysis

Picture this: You've brought your sick child to the doctor's office. After checking her pulse and blood pressure, he takes a nasal or throat swab and inserts it into a mysterious black box. Before the doctor finishes his examination, the black box beeps, indicating that the pathogen that's making your child sick has been identified. Sound far-fetched? Actually, this…

Success of DHS was built on relationship with Lab

Editor's note; The following is part of an ongoing series looking back at the events surrounding 9/11. Today's feature looks at the role the Laboratory played in establishing the Department of Homeland Security. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Parney Albright already had spent 16 years working in national security. That morning, on a military base just outside Washington…

Remembering September 11

What has become a solemn Lab tradition, a brief yet poignant ceremony was held Monday near the Superblock to commemorate the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001 in New York City, the Pentagon, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. "Please pray for those who carry on without their loved ones," Chris Holm of the Superblock said during the program's introduction. Lab employee Jennifer…

Lab technologies answer nation's call to prevent bioterrorism

Editor's note -- This is the final article in a series on the Lab's response to the 9/11 attacks. Today's feature looks at the Lab's role in protecting the nation against bioterorrism. In trying to protect the nation against bioterrorism, national lab and university scientists, public health authorities and law enforcement agencies have waged the fight on many fronts…

Lab detects need for new radiation technologies

Editor's note: As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, Newsline is running a series of articles on the Lab's response to events following the attacks. Today's story looks at the Lab's contributions to radiation detection. September 11, 2001 served as a turning point for the United States. The first major attack on U.S. soil in nearly 60 years and the largest loss of…

Lab's work provides BASIS for biodetection

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of stories looking back at the Lab's response to events following Sept. 11. Today's piece focuses on the Lab's role in establishing BASIS - the Biological Aerosol Sentry and Information System - and BioWatch. By Stephen Wampler Telephone calls awakened Tom Slezak, Kris Montgomery and Cheryl Strout and Julie Avila at their homes…

Lab continues to answer the call for security

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles looking back at the Lab's response immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks and the Lab's response since that day 10 years ago. Today's article is adapted from a column by Wayne Shotts, the former head of the Nonproliferation, Arms Control and International Security Directorate (the predecessor organization to the…

Noble wins NNSA defense program award

The Lab's Chad Noble, a weapons designer/engineer in the Weapons and Complex Integration directorate, has been named a winner of a Defense Programs Employee of the Quarter award by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Recipients of the awards are recognized for going beyond the call of duty in supporting the mission of NNSA's Defense Programs. Noble was…

Lindl, Rosen, Santer and Spencer named Distinguished Members Technical Staff

Four Laboratory employees have been named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff (DMTS) for their extraordinary scientific and technical contributions to the Laboratory and its missions as acknowledged by their professional peers and the larger community. John Lindl of the NIF and Photon Science Principal Directorate, Mordy Rosen of the Weapons Complex and Integration…

Preventing close encounters of the orbiting kind

Each day, hundreds of active satellites as well as tens of thousands of pieces of "space junk" -- defunct satellites, bits of booster rockets and lost astronaut tools -- orbit Earth.This space junk became front page news two years ago, when a defunct Russian satellite and a privately owned American communications satellite collided near the North Pole. The incident…

LLNL researchers find way to mitigate traumatic brain injury in study for Joint IED Defeat Organization

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have found that soldiers using military helmets one size larger and with thicker pads could reduce the severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI) from blunt and ballistic impacts. Their results came after a one-year study funded by the U.S. Army and the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) to compare the…

Livermore researchers develop battery-less chemical detector

Unlike many conventional chemical detectors that require an external power source, Lawrence Livermore researchers have developed a nanosensor that relies on semiconductor nanowires, rather than traditional batteries. The device overcomes the power requirement of traditional sensors and is simple, highly sensitive and can detect various molecules quickly. Its development…