High priced selection committees are not needed, let Google decide!
"Director Goodwin" = 48,700 hits
"Director Moses" = 19,800 hits
"Director Knapp" = 8,320 hits
"Director Younger" = 7,810 hits
Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...
Comments
February 20, 2014 at 1:59 AM
Everyone knows that. No one who matters cares.
February 20, 2014 at 2:13 PM
Pretty juvenile.
February 20, 2014 at 9:45 PM
This keeps coming up here in posts. If true, how large is the pool of candidates? Joan Woodard? Pat Falcone? Mim John?
It's almost certainly gonna be Knapp, and thinking back, I can't recall a single case where an "Acting" person was not ultimately selected for the final job. Not at any level, AD, division leader, group leader, and at least not in the past 25+ years. Can anyone else?
Usually the old director hangs around as a lame duck while the committee names a new director, so this situation is unusual. But it does not seem likely that anyone but Knapp will get the job.
February 22, 2014 at 1:19 PM
Google agrees. Only 309 hits for "Director Verdon"
February 20, 2014 at 9:46 PM
The entire upper management in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Weapons Program do not have PhDs either. James Owen (W-Division Leader), John Benner (AD for Weapons), and Craig Leasure (Acting Weapons PAD). It's Knapp's legacy of picking fellow incompetent, do-nothing, con-artist, henchmen.
February 20, 2014 at 9:46 PM
The entire upper management in the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Weapons Program do not have PhDs either. James Owen (W-Division Leader), John Benner (AD for Weapons), and Craig Leasure (Acting Weapons PAD). It's Knapp's legacy of picking fellow incompetent, do-nothing, con-artist, henchmen.
February 23, 2014 at 1:05 PM
So that's your description of anyone without a PhD? Last I looked, PhD curricula and training did not include any mention of honesty or ethics. You only have to look at most of the high-tech companies leading the NASDAQ to find extremely competent managers who know how to make their employees happy and do not have PhDs.
The previous 3 individuals are the first ever Vice Presidents without a Ph.D. in Science or Engineering to lead technical divisions at Sandia. A quick search on the internet shows that Adam Rowen went to a school in New Mexico.
Steve Renfro deputy AD Nuclear Weapons, BS without PhD (also comes from a New Mexico school)
John Nuckolls does not have a Ph.D. either (some may recall his previous estimate of laser energy needed for ignition)
He seems to think everyone should be shocked, shocked!! that some managers don't have PhDs. He is endlessly confused about why nobody is.
It will be Knapp. It's a done deal.
To illustrate, in practice a Ph,D. alone, independant of performance, does not contribute more than a 1/4 to 1/3 of the ranking in mixed scientific or professional technical evaluations.
It represents part of the value of a scientist in positions that require research or unique deep technical knowledge. Unique, deep technical knowledge can be gained other ways, generally through continued practice in specialties.
A Ph.D. does not prequalify temperament, judgement or relevant experience for leadership of large organizations, though it does help. It alone presents competence in a specialty and also says the holder has staying power, for it takes about 30 years to make a scientist. (Birth to independent action)
It certainly not a requirement for the non-scientific divisions at Sandia any more that it assures success running the non-scientific divisions (over 80% of divisions at LANL and LLNL). Other attributes such as demonstrated performance are more relevant.
Compare the performance of Nuckolls, Tarter, Anastasio and Miller. They are similar. Emmett outperformed Campbell, but both operated in different times, and have driven personalities and talent unrelated to Ph.D. quality.
It is imperative in my judgement that the Directors of both labs have the ability to personally oversee, and to independently assess, on his/her own merits, the long-term validity of stockpile stewardship. No one else in the country does this. He/she must also be a successful lab leader, immersed in its culture and capable of protecting it from the storms (morons?) of the Potomac, so that it can continue to achieve the stewardship mission, "boom if necessary, and not otherwise."
February 25, 2014 at 9:30 AM\
That simply does not happen. If you've ever been part of that process, it is a group process, with knowledgeable technical staff and group leaders having every bit as much clout as the Director in the final say on the assessment letter. No one second guesses hands-on direct experience and knowledge.
February 26, 2014 at 7:32 PM
Those with "direct experience and knowledge" are becoming quite scarce at both of the nuclear weapon labs. Not many left who have felt the ground shake,and reported nuclear performance back to DC a couple of hours later. Or, who have designed a weapon that was actually tested and is in our stockpile today.
February 23, 2014 at 1:05 PM
James Owen thinks everyone forgot he spent 2-years on the University of Colorado campus while earning a full-time LANL salary (on Lab on campus program) only to come back to the Labs without his M.S. degree. Ironically, James tries to "come off" as a a cost conscious manager with technical skills. All you folks in W-division are working for a "con artist".
February 23, 2014 at 1:05 PM
So what? No need for a PhD if you're not designing weapons.
March 1, 2014 at 12:02 PM
Unfortunately, we don't know what he has, or how he got it. A lot of people have conspired to keep a lot of information about him and his past hidden. Just guarding his privacy? You mean the kind that he is willing to violate for every American citizen? Why don't people who support him tell him what they tell everyone else: "If you don't have anything to hide, you don't have anything to worry about"?
James Owen thinks everyone forgot he spent 2-years on the University of Colorado campus while earning a full-time LANL salary (on Lab on campus program) only to come back to the Labs without his M.S. degree. Ironically, James tries to "come off" as a a cost conscious manager with technical skills. All you folks in W-division are working for a "con artist".
March 1, 2014 at 6:38 AM
A perfect example of "a failure" being promoted to the upper ranks at LANL. I mean the guy was rewarded for failing to earn his M.S. while making more than $100K!
March 1, 2014 at 5:19 PM
Lots of people with only a BS or BA earn over $100k at LANL. If you aren't one of them, you aren't making yourself useful enough, or aren't making yourself known enough as being useful.
The previous 3 individuals are the first ever Vice Presidents without a Ph.D. in Science or Engineering to lead technical divisions at Sandia. A quick search on the internet shows that Adam Rowen went to a school in New Mexico.
Steve Renfro deputy AD Nuclear Weapons, BS without PhD (also comes from a New Mexico school)
John Nuckolls does not have a Ph.D. either (some may recall his previous estimate of laser energy needed for ignition)
Anonymous said...
It is not a surprise, I suppose, that the readers of this blog do not understand the value of a scientific Ph.D. It is one of the few measurable attributes that distinguishes candidates, and it has some importance.
Page, Zuckerberg, Gates, Jobs, Barra, many, many more. No PhDs.
This is the truth and alot of Phd's don't want to hear it. Do we really need Phds at the lab? Maybe in the old days but now? I think they are far more trouble then they are worth. Just ask yourself this question. The most advanced technology on earth right now is being made by Facebook, Google, and Twitter. Do you any of these places even have Phd,s? Do any of these places use anything that came from a Ph.d? No. So why does LLNL and LANL who do not do anything nearly as complex or hard as these places do, need Ph.ds? Since the salary is related to education level we could save a whole lot of money by having a lot less Phd's. and I bet we would have less problems as well.
March 9, 2014 at 6:40 PM "
Giving this some thought I realized that these really are the new weapons of mass destruction, as dangerous as any designed by LANL or LLNL. They have managed to zap a whole generation into mindless blathering, while contributing absolutely nothing of lasting value to modern society. They have turned you into something more frightenly close to the drones of the Borg Collective than Gene Roddenberry could ever have imagined. The blogs are proof.
March 9, 2014 at 7:47 PM
Priceless!!