There is a rumor going around that the Los Alamos fellows are not very happy with Mason after a recent talk. He showed a plot of LANL publications highlighting a decline in publications compared to other labs. Los Alamos was the top lab before 2006 and then lost out to LLBL, ORNL and ANL and is now at about the same level as PNNL. At the same time the lab has grown twice the size. Sure we have a lot more people but the overall quality of the staff is much lower today. One can always argue that publications do not measure everything but anyone from LANL who has visited ANL or ORNL recently can attest that they seem like much more active and healthy places especially in terms of younger people.
Did something happened in 2006? Oh yes, that is when LANS came in. Good job. I doubt the Fellows have much power at this point, and seem like product of a bygone era who are out of touch. Maybe this is just the plan all along to make the place a PIT facility. As Greg Mello said in a recent interview about what he heard the LANL management is saying....interview a 100 and hire a 100. This does not bode well for a good science future at LANL nor an operational PIT facility. I am no fan of Mello but he has a point every now and then.
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Plenty of “Midwits” at LLNL too, that have less than mediocre “push the envelope” achievements to show for, that are nevertheless untouchable. That’s where we are.
Does anyone know how LLNL is doing compared to LANL in terms of publications and science? My sense has been that LLNL is rapidly catching up and should surpass it in a few years. NIF should be a big boost to LLNL science. With LANL priorities switching to manufacturing I would guess LLNL will be the de-factor science lab within the NNSA complex.
I have no idea if TRIAD is thinking long term but the town of Los Alamos has real issues with space and it will be difficult to keep hiring more manufacturing people. Maybe they should see the writing on the wall that LANL should just de-emphases science and consider what can be moved to LLNL, or Sandia to free up some space. I am not trying to be pessimistic just realistic. If NNSA wants science and manufacturing to both succeed in the complex they are going to have to make some changes.
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