Laboratory colleagues:
It is our pleasure to announce the appointment of Dr. Kimberly (Kim) Budil as President of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) and the 13th Director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), effective March 2, 2021. The selection of the Laboratory director is one of the most important responsibilities of the University of California (UC) and the LLNS Board of Governors. Dr. Budil’s appointment has received the unanimous approval of the LLNS Executive Committee and the concurrence of the Secretary of Energy, NNSA Administrator and UC President. Dr. Budil will be the first woman to lead the Laboratory.
Dr. Budil has a long career at LLNL and the University of California. She currently leads LLNL’s nuclear weapons program as the Principal Associate Director for Weapons & Complex Integration (WCI). She joined LLNL as a graduate student in Laser Programs in 1987 and became a postdoc in the weapons program in 1994. Over her career, she has held roles of increasing management responsibility across LLNL programs including WCI, Global Security, National Ignition Facility and Physical and Life Sciences. She has twice served as a detailee in Washington, D.C., first at NNSA Office of Defense Science and then as a senior adviser to the Under Secretary for Science. She also has served as the vice president for national laboratories in the UC Office of the President, where she was responsible for the governance and oversight of the three UC-affiliated national laboratories and served on the LLNS Boards of Governors. She received her Ph.D. in engineering/applied science from the University of California, Davis in 1994 and obtained her bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1987. She has received numerous awards, including being named a 2019 fellow of the American Physical Society.
Dr. Budil’s appointment comes after a rigorous, competitive, national search led by the University of California that resulted in the review and consideration of a broad and diverse array of candidates. Laboratory employees participated on the Search Committee and Screening Task Force. Their hard work and commitment to this search process is greatly appreciated.
We strongly believe that Dr. Budil is the best person to lead LLNL at this time, and she will continue to champion the Laboratory’s outstanding contributions to its national security missions into the future.
Please join us in thanking Bill Goldstein for his dedicated service as LLNL director for the past 7 years. We wish him all the best in his retirement. We welcome Dr. Budil as the new LLNL Director and LLNS President.
Sincerely,
Charlene Zettel
Chair, LLNS Board of Governors
University of California Board of Regents
7 comments:
It’s always amusing when “a rigorous, competitive, national search” hires an insider. I guess LLNL learned its lesson with Parney, don’t hire an outsider because they may actually fix glaring problems...
Kim is a reasonable choice. Unlike Hubrey, at least she is qualified.
Excellent choice. She clearly knows nuclear weapons work at the Lab and within NNSA/DOD, and knows UC and its other national labs. Continues the tradition of physicists running LLNL too.
Congrats to her.
Will this alter the scope of the Critical Race Theory classes that are coming to the Lab?
9:43 PM ...
I have no idea what her perspective on CRT might be.
It won't matter.
The new Biden Administration (which I generally support) has rescinded the Presidential directives regarding CRT. They (via DOE) will soon issue their guidance on how it applies to the national labs, and that will be it. The new Lab Director won't waste ammunition fighting the Administration on this topic.
And, it really doesn't matter at all. You sit in the training, nod and smile, and go about your business. Unless you are in the daily business of pissing people off anyway, in which case you will be much, much more unhappy.
"Continues the tradition of physicists running LLNL too."
Wasn't Brett an engineer?
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