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Lots of LLNL and LANL people there. Not surprising since they purged most of the SNL hacks. I see they installed a Honeywell stooge as the deputy director. Maybe Hruby can file a formal complaint with Trump for loosing her $1,000,000/yr government job she received due to affirmative action, given her complete lack of qualifications for the role of lab director.
I bet China, Iran and North Korea put their most qualified and talented people in charge of their nuke labs, since they don't have to play all of Obama's box checking games. Now that Trump is in office, maybe the USA can start doing the same???? Is that too much to ask?
To see Steve Girrens leading the Sandia nuclear weapon program is an absolute disgrace. Girrens was an incapable leader at LANL. I remember him crying on the shoulder of a fellow manager at S-site telling him how hard his job was and that he couldn't hack it as ESA-Divison Leader. This guy is a joke!
Mike Burns was a B- student at UC Berkeley, he barely squeaked through. The only reason he was hired at LANL was due to his wife Carol Burns; both were hired at the same day at LANL.
Girrens was a failure during his very short stint in the nuclear weapons program at LANL. He has absolutely no experience at the nuclear Cat 2 facilities at LANL, nor does he have any experience in security or safeguards. He won't last long in this position and will quickly become overwhelmed. Make sure you call him "God" too, he likes that.
It's amazing to see that someone with absolutely no experience in the nuclear weapons program (i.e. Girrens) is leading the Sandia nuclear weapon program. Are you kidding me? What an abomination!
One thing is clear is that Sandia is going to start doing more science and take programs from LANL. There is talk that Sandia will now a science and engineering lab while LANL will become a engineering lab since science has led to so many problems. I also seek hearing LANL managers going on about how we need to be Sandia and look to Sandia for for the future. The problem with this is that I doubt Sandia will just hand over engineering tasks to LANL and also a portion of their money comes from private industry which can choose where there money goes. The more likely outcome is that Sandia will just continue to grow and LANL will continue to shrink.
It's obvious that Girrens will need to bring all his friends (e.g. Bernardin, Benner, Montoya, Owens, etc.) from LANL to lead the weapon program at Sandia, if not, Rottler (aka Rottweiler), Sanders, Peery, Sena, etc. will eat his lunch and make him watch. It's gonna be a dog fight for sure!
I have no facts on Burns' grades (why do you even care?), but I can tell you he is a good manager and leader. He knows how lead WFO programs.
January 21, 2017 at 10:46 PM
I have never seen any leadership from Burns, not Michael Burns. He only rides on the skirt tails of his wife Carol who is extremely competent and intelligent, she got him hired at LANL on the LANL dynamic-duo policy.
Reshuffling the idiots isn't going to materially change anything at any lab. They are so totally infused with a generation or two of third rate talent, lack of mission, nepotism and declining competitiveness against private employers that a fix is impossible. The government would need to blow the whole thing up and start over with all of the leadership from the director level up, and shut down the NNSA, handing the labs over to the DOD for management. They also have to have the balls to make it clear that incompetence, for whatever reason, will not be tolerated and will lead to firings. Similarly, the need to be able to reward success without succumbing to nepotism, favoritism, corruption, politics and the other usual metrics that constitute "performance" at the labs.
Its a tall order, which is why any competent, ambition person has already voted with their feet.
Steve Younger, Steve Girrens, Michael Burns, and Susan Seestrom were not exactly leadership gladiators in shining armor at LANL or LLNL. Anyone at LANL or LLNL know this. So why does NNSA think they will be successful in unknown territory at Sandia? This is a prime example of why the LLCs are a complete failure, with the exception of the folks (upper management) that land on top of the money heap.
P.S. I agree, Steve Girrens is way over is head in this position.
So why does NNSA think they will be successful in unknown territory at Sandia?
January 22, 2017 at 2:35 PM
NNSA doesn't think this, and doesn't control who the contractor brings in as senior management. The contractor controls it's own fate, as it should be,
NNSA doesn't think this, and doesn't control who the contractor brings in as senior management. The contractor controls it's own fate, as it should be,
January 22, 2017 at 5:14 PM
Well, then you don't understand the way the SNL contract was bid.
The RFP had a criteria that compared the key people on each bid and scored them. It was a large part of the overall score for each bidder.
Given that RFP criteria, I am confused how somebody who has not been in the weapon program for over a decade, and even then only marginally, scores as the best to run the weapons program at the largest lab?
"I am confused how somebody who has not been in the weapon program for over a decade, and even then only marginally, scores as the best to run the weapons program at the largest lab?"
Sounds like sour grapes from a Hillary voter. Probably you are also confused how a non-lifetime politician could possibly govern a country better than a seasoned capital hill crony and carpetbagger.
This guy was a joke in a never-ending series of "acting" positions he had at LANL.
January 22, 2017 at 3:15 PM
I agree. I seem to recall him being tossed out of job a few years ago by a new DoD guy (who joined LANL) who saw through his incompetence. Carol (his wife) through a huge temper tantrum all the way to the Director to get him reinstated.
It's very obvious that the NNSA folks that the made the decision to pick NTESS had an agenda. There is no way this management team could have beaten even a mediocre team. The new Sandia Deputy Lab Director for National Security Programs (Girrens) has NO nuclear weapon experience. This is an ingredient for a massive failure of NTESS within a short time. Good job NNSA, good selection, now you OWN this management team and the problems that will arise at Sandia as a result of this decision.
Given the significant number of national level conversations related to minorities in tech taking place the last few years, https://www.fastcompany.com/3067152/creative-conversations/lessons-in-techs-past-diversity-fails-point-the-way-forward or https://www.google.com/#q=underrepresented+in+tech&tbm=nws
it is jaw dropping that all ten of the new key personnel are white and only two are women. Of the thirteen key personnel currently at Sandia who will be booted for the boys club, six are women, two are underrepresented minorities, and one of the women is a twofer.
And all of that should be secondary to the fact that they have no relevant NW experience. Guess they'll need some "alternative facts" from twitler's 2:31AM postings to certify the stockpile.
Women are a small minority in science, more so in nuclear weapon fields. No reason to expect or want a higher percentage than that in the NW labs. Simple demographics. Otherwise you are choosing based on political correctness rather than qualifications.
On the bright side, Sue Seestrom is now going to be in charge of all Sandia science. The same Sue who repeatedly mismanaged the experimental program at LANSCE and was finally removed after the radiation fiasco. But her miserable track record at LANL doesn't really matter, so long as she's not "a white male", right?
To think that Steve Girrens will be certifying our Nation's nuclear stockpile is not only appalling but dangerous. Another example how the National Laboratory LLC concept allows unqualified individuals with no experience to rise to this level is hard to fathom.
So Sandia gets the detritus of LANL? Some of these people are old. Sandia is the new LANL senior center! Adult diapers and defribulators in the break room! Yeah!
The beauty of NTESS Sandia management transition, or any National Laboratory LLCs transition, is that NTESS will bring in new management (Younger, Girrens, etc.) structure with salaries totaling hundreds of million (+$100M) in salaries while the old management (Hruby, Rottler, etc.) remain making their old salaries in positions (Maytag repairmen) that don't harm the new management.
The fleecing of America: National Laboratory Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)
Also, for those who don't, Younger hired Girrens to be his "hatchet man". Girrens has a reputation of firing folks at will. He is a cunning wolf; he will embrace you one day and stab you in the back the next. DO NOT PISS HIM OFF. Good luck Sandians!
Girrens was so popular in Los Alamos that he wasn't even re-elected as City Counselor in the recent election. He couldn't even be fit as a dog catcher.
At LANL, we mass-produce and export failed managers. What can we do for your laboratory today?
January 25, 2017 at 11:34 AM
LLNL did a good job of exporting their failed managers as well, Anastasio, Mara, McMillan, Knapp. All failures in their own right. But, let's face it, it's the LLC model that has failed us, this guys (including Younger, Girrens, Seestrom, Burns) are smart enough to benefit financially from DOE/NNSAs continued ignorance and stupidity!
Mara was the guy with the terrible toupee, right? These NTESS guys are not even in the same league as Mike, Brett, and Charlie. Sandia is going to have some big problems.
January 26, 2017 at 5:28 PM: "Sandia is going to have some big problems."
Their main problem is that it is staffed with private sector rejects and and C+ UNM and NMSU students that couldn't get a job out of state.
January 27, 2017 at 4:53 AM
The same reason that LANL has declined. For example, the W and Q-division Weapon System Division Leaders are both C- students, both with BS degrees from NMSU. That's it.
Too bad we can't all just be put into positions based on our degrees and the schools they are from. Then we would have our vaunted Berkeley staff member, who earned an A average, in charge. All the NMSU grads would be techs or janitors. All would be right and just in the world.
It is really shameful that we have to be rated on our merits and performance. The failures as a Team Leader and as a Deputy Group Leader haunt us for the rest of our careers and we end up as a habitual troll on a blog complaining in petty ways about people who held us accountable and deluding ourselves that nobody knows who we are.
Over the last twenty years the climate at the labs has gotten so nasty that people above a certain level, those who could find good jobs outside, have all left. The lab managers didn't seem bothered at first: "No one is irreplaceable. There's an oversupply of Ph.D. We will just hire some new ones." But then it gradually dawned on them that they were not able to attract the replacements of the same caliber. So they have been forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel to fill their vacancies. And this is a self-reinforcing process, a death spiral.
The issue is not about educational pedigree per se above "fancy" vs "non-fancy" schools. The issue is about being unable to hire quality workforce. Most of today's science Ph.D. graduates no longer regard the NNSA labs an acceptable career path.
Most of today's science Ph.D. graduates no longer regard the NNSA labs an acceptable career path.
January 28, 2017 at 4:37 PM
That has in fact always been true. The vast majority have always preferred non-national security university positions that allowed research, teaching, and tenure-granted perks such as sabbaticals, overseas visiting professorships, outside consulting, and cadres of graduate students to do the actual work. Nice cushy job, no pressure beyond publishing once a year or so.
I'm sure there are some bright UNM and NMSU grads. But 99% of high school seniors don't say, "You know what, I can't decide between Caltech, MIT and UNM. I think I'll just go to UNM and get C+ grades." That's not reality. Reality is that the best students and performers go to the best schools and get the best grades. Only in the SNL and LANL reality distortion bubble are C+ UNM and NMSU students suddenly better performers than everybody else, even though these people would never get a job offer from the Googles of the world.
I agree that the best and brightest no longer have any interest in NNSA labs but look at what has been done to the labs. In the past we had 5 weeks of vacation per year, good pensions, sabbaticals, overseas visiting positions, outside consulting, and good students. The overhead was always much higher than at a University but you had lots of good equipment to work with, outstanding students and postdocs because the pay was really good, and a long history of supporting research that was deemed important to the country. All of that has been changed to "industry standards," not university standards. I wouldn't let one of my students work at one of the labs. There is zero commitment to research and they can get better benefits at a university or better money in industry. Stupid mangers and idiotic HR people think "industry standards" are good enough. What innovation is left? Even in the core mission, there just isn't much talent available. I can't imagine that we even have the ability to resume testing. I don't think it would be good to resume testing but who really knows how to put together a diagnostic package anymore? It would be nice if we could keep a few of the best and brightest to run things new or old such as testing but they aren't there for a reason: terrible management that thinks scientific talent is just a commodity (and if it were just that, they wouldn't be willing to pay for it). The only people the current management value are other managers and none of them have really done anything except get paid for expertise they don't have. At least the pensions of old allowed us to escape. The only "young" people left with any talent are hanging on because of the pensions which can't be transferred to UC anymore. For someone hired today, there is no reason anyone good would want to work there and one of the big reasons for that is managers like the new Sandia team.
Amen to that. The real University brain trust that the labs were founded on was blown up 10 years ago. Its Bechtel arrogance and stupidity that has turned these once great institutions into a joke. Thanks Riley and DiFi....Good job!! I hope you choke the billions you stole from the taxpayers. A serious investigation is needed. LOCK EM UP!
Ah yes. LLNL "the true story", crap-ass blog extraordinaire, where pension-collecting trolls go to whine about their claimed-but-nonexistent hardships.
Please, spare us the drama, the Trump-isms, and the anti-Obama sentiment (which is TRULY amazing given the events of the last 10 days - not that anyone here is actually conversant in facts), and give us some real facts.
"Ah yes. LLNL "the true story", crap-ass blog extraordinaire, where pension-collecting trolls go to whine about their claimed-but-nonexistent hardships. and give us some real facts."
I don't work at the labs anymore. Instead I am a taxpayer, and seeing my donates go to fund a bunch of incompetents pisses me off. Does this make me a liberal feminist snowflake?
Hey 5:04 pm Bechtel manager. They tell the truth about the garbage you have done and you don't like it. Boo hoo. Wait until you leave your management position and see if anybody cares about you.
5:04 pm here. I'm not a Bechtel manager and never was. I just have no respect for people who gripe about their situation but don't have the balls to do anything about it.
To think that Steve Girrens will be certifying our Nation's nuclear stockpile is not only appalling but dangerous. Another example how the National Laboratory LLC concept allows unqualified individuals with no experience to rise to this level is hard to fathom.
January 25, 2017 at 3:30 AM
The summer students at Sandia will have more experience than Girrens. Really? Girrens, OMG, Sandia is in trouble.
61 comments:
Deeney rumor was a rumor, I see.
Lots of LLNL and LANL people there. Not surprising since they purged most of the SNL hacks. I see they installed a Honeywell stooge as the deputy director. Maybe Hruby can file a formal complaint with Trump for loosing her $1,000,000/yr government job she received due to affirmative action, given her complete lack of qualifications for the role of lab director.
I bet China, Iran and North Korea put their most qualified and talented people in charge of their nuke labs, since they don't have to play all of Obama's box checking games. Now that Trump is in office, maybe the USA can start doing the same???? Is that too much to ask?
To see Steve Girrens leading the Sandia nuclear weapon program is an absolute disgrace. Girrens was an incapable leader at LANL. I remember him crying on the shoulder of a fellow manager at S-site telling him how hard his job was and that he couldn't hack it as ESA-Divison Leader. This guy is a joke!
Mike Burns was a B- student at UC Berkeley, he barely squeaked through. The only reason he was hired at LANL was due to his wife Carol Burns; both were hired at the same day at LANL.
Girrens was a failure during his very short stint in the nuclear weapons program at LANL. He has absolutely no experience at the nuclear Cat 2 facilities at LANL, nor does he have any experience in security or safeguards. He won't last long in this position and will quickly become overwhelmed. Make sure you call him "God" too, he likes that.
It's amazing to see that someone with absolutely no experience in the nuclear weapons program (i.e. Girrens) is leading the Sandia nuclear weapon program. Are you kidding me? What an abomination!
I have no facts on Burns' grades (why do you even care?), but I can tell you he is a good manager and leader. He knows how lead WFO programs.
One thing is clear is that Sandia is going to start doing more science and take programs from LANL. There is talk that Sandia will
now a science and engineering lab while LANL will become a engineering lab since science has led to so many problems. I also seek hearing LANL managers going on about how we need to be Sandia and look to Sandia for for the future. The problem with this is that I doubt Sandia will just hand over engineering tasks to LANL and also a portion of their money comes from private industry which can choose where there money goes. The more likely outcome is that Sandia will just continue to grow and LANL will continue to shrink.
It's obvious that Girrens will need to bring all his friends (e.g. Bernardin, Benner, Montoya, Owens, etc.) from LANL to lead the weapon program at Sandia, if not, Rottler (aka Rottweiler), Sanders, Peery, Sena, etc. will eat his lunch and make him watch. It's gonna be a dog fight for sure!
I have no facts on Burns' grades (why do you even care?), but I can tell you he is a good manager and leader. He knows how lead WFO programs.
January 21, 2017 at 10:46 PM
I have never seen any leadership from Burns, not Michael Burns. He only rides on the skirt tails of his wife Carol who is extremely competent and intelligent, she got him hired at LANL on the LANL dynamic-duo policy.
Girrens and Rottler; only one Napoleon (complex) will win!
"Victory belongs to the most persevering."
Reshuffling the idiots isn't going to materially change anything at any lab. They are so totally infused with a generation or two of third rate talent, lack of mission, nepotism and declining competitiveness against private employers that a fix is impossible. The government would need to blow the whole thing up and start over with all of the leadership from the director level up, and shut down the NNSA, handing the labs over to the DOD for management. They also have to have the balls to make it clear that incompetence, for whatever reason, will not be tolerated and will lead to firings. Similarly, the need to be able to reward success without succumbing to nepotism, favoritism, corruption, politics and the other usual metrics that constitute "performance" at the labs.
Its a tall order, which is why any competent, ambition person has already voted with their feet.
"Anonymous Anonymous said...
It's obvious that Girrens will need to bring all his friends (e.g. Bernardin, Benner, Montoya, Owens, etc.) from LANL"
I sure hope Girrens is friends with Jeff Yarbrough and Wendy Baca! They ned to go and it is way past due.
Steve Younger, Steve Girrens, Michael Burns, and Susan Seestrom were not exactly leadership gladiators in shining armor at LANL or LLNL. Anyone at LANL or LLNL know this. So why does NNSA think they will be successful in unknown territory at Sandia? This is a prime example of why the LLCs are a complete failure, with the exception of the folks (upper management) that land on top of the money heap.
P.S. I agree, Steve Girrens is way over is head in this position.
Mike Burns?
This guy was a joke in a never-ending series of "acting" positions he had at LANL.
So why does NNSA think they will be successful in unknown territory at Sandia?
January 22, 2017 at 2:35 PM
NNSA doesn't think this, and doesn't control who the contractor brings in as senior management. The contractor controls it's own fate, as it should be,
NNSA doesn't think this, and doesn't control who the contractor brings in as senior management. The contractor controls it's own fate, as it should be,
January 22, 2017 at 5:14 PM
Well, then you don't understand the way the SNL contract was bid.
The RFP had a criteria that compared the key people on each bid and scored them. It was a large part of the overall score for each bidder.
Given that RFP criteria, I am confused how somebody who has not been in the weapon program for over a decade, and even then only marginally, scores as the best to run the weapons program at the largest lab?
"I am confused how somebody who has not been in the weapon program for over a decade, and even then only marginally, scores as the best to run the weapons program at the largest lab?"
Sounds like sour grapes from a Hillary voter. Probably you are also confused how a non-lifetime politician could possibly govern a country better than a seasoned capital hill crony and carpetbagger.
Coolness, no experience required! The comparison to politics is idiotic.
Burns is a good leader. He will be missed at LANL.
Mike Burns?
This guy was a joke in a never-ending series of "acting" positions he had at LANL.
January 22, 2017 at 3:15 PM
I agree. I seem to recall him being tossed out of job a few years ago by a new DoD guy (who joined LANL) who saw through his incompetence. Carol (his wife) through a huge temper tantrum all the way to the Director to get him reinstated.
Burns is a good leader. He will be missed at LANL.
January 23, 2017 at 5:23 AM
"Good"? Isn't that the score that LANL Operations received in the LANL Annual evaluation that eventually led the lab to loose the contract?
It's very obvious that the NNSA folks that the made the decision to pick NTESS had an agenda. There is no way this management team could have beaten even a mediocre team. The new Sandia Deputy Lab Director for National Security Programs (Girrens) has NO nuclear weapon experience. This is an ingredient for a massive failure of NTESS within a short time. Good job NNSA, good selection, now you OWN this management team and the problems that will arise at Sandia as a result of this decision.
Given the significant number of national level conversations related to minorities in tech taking place the last few years, https://www.fastcompany.com/3067152/creative-conversations/lessons-in-techs-past-diversity-fails-point-the-way-forward or https://www.google.com/#q=underrepresented+in+tech&tbm=nws
it is jaw dropping that all ten of the new key personnel are white and only two are women. Of the thirteen key personnel currently at Sandia who will be booted for the boys club, six are women, two are underrepresented minorities, and one of the women is a twofer.
And all of that should be secondary to the fact that they have no relevant NW experience. Guess they'll need some "alternative facts" from twitler's 2:31AM postings to certify the stockpile.
Women are a small minority in science, more so in nuclear weapon fields. No reason to expect or want a higher percentage than that in the NW labs. Simple demographics. Otherwise you are choosing based on political correctness rather than qualifications.
On the bright side, Sue Seestrom is now going to be in charge of all Sandia science. The same Sue who repeatedly mismanaged the experimental program at LANSCE and was finally removed after the radiation fiasco. But her miserable track record at LANL doesn't really matter, so long as she's not "a white male", right?
Viva the swamp!
To think that Steve Girrens will be certifying our Nation's nuclear stockpile is not only appalling but dangerous. Another example how the National Laboratory LLC concept allows unqualified individuals with no experience to rise to this level is hard to fathom.
At LANL, we mass-produce and export failed managers. What can we do for your laboratory today?
Hard to admit it, but the LANL managers that are going to SNL are better than a lot of the ones that remain at LANL.
That's why they are being cherry-picked by the new SNL contractor. A statement about what is available in the complex.
So Sandia gets the detritus of LANL?
Some of these people are old. Sandia is the new LANL senior center!
Adult diapers and defribulators in the break room! Yeah!
So Sandia gets the detritus of LANL?
January 25, 2017 at 6:07 PM
No, get a clue. SNL picks the best who will come from all the NWC contractors. That's what "cherry-picking" means, dumbo.
Cherry picking from LANL is like the Spanish proverb:
In the house of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
The beauty of NTESS Sandia management transition, or any National Laboratory LLCs transition, is that NTESS will bring in new management (Younger, Girrens, etc.) structure with salaries totaling hundreds of million (+$100M) in salaries while the old management (Hruby, Rottler, etc.) remain making their old salaries in positions (Maytag repairmen) that don't harm the new management.
The fleecing of America: National Laboratory Limited Liability Companies (LLCs)
Also, for those who don't, Younger hired Girrens to be his "hatchet man". Girrens has a reputation of firing folks at will. He is a cunning wolf; he will embrace you one day and stab you in the back the next. DO NOT PISS HIM OFF. Good luck Sandians!
Girrens was so popular in Los Alamos that he wasn't even re-elected as City Counselor in the recent election. He couldn't even be fit as a dog catcher.
"Hard to admit it, but the LANL managers that are going to SNL are better than a lot of the ones that remain at LANL.
January 25, 2017 at 12:26 PM"
Ouch!! If this is true, LANL is really in trouble. Who are your remaining managers? Addicts and molesters?
At LANL, we mass-produce and export failed managers. What can we do for your laboratory today?
January 25, 2017 at 11:34 AM
LLNL did a good job of exporting their failed managers as well, Anastasio, Mara, McMillan, Knapp. All failures in their own right. But, let's face it, it's the LLC model that has failed us, this guys (including Younger, Girrens, Seestrom, Burns) are smart enough to benefit financially from DOE/NNSAs continued ignorance and stupidity!
Mara was the guy with the terrible toupee, right?
These NTESS guys are not even in the same league as Mike, Brett, and Charlie.
Sandia is going to have some big problems.
Mara was the guy with the terrible toupee, right?
January 26, 2017 at 5:28 PM
Yeah and no one had the courage to tell him he had it on backwards and in the wrong color.
January 26, 2017 at 5:28 PM: "Sandia is going to have some big problems."
Their main problem is that it is staffed with private sector rejects and and C+ UNM and NMSU students that couldn't get a job out of state.
January 26, 2017 at 5:28 PM: "Sandia is going to have some big problems."
Their main problem is that it is staffed with private sector rejects and and C+ UNM and NMSU students that couldn't get a job out of state.
January 27, 2017 at 4:53 AM
The same reason that LANL has declined. For example, the W and Q-division Weapon System Division Leaders are both C- students, both with BS degrees from NMSU. That's it.
I'm guessing that's all they need in order to do what is required to keep the ADs happy.
Too bad we can't all just be put into positions based on our degrees and the schools they are from. Then we would have our vaunted Berkeley staff member, who earned an A average, in charge. All the NMSU grads would be techs or janitors. All would be right and just in the world.
It is really shameful that we have to be rated on our merits and performance. The failures as a Team Leader and as a Deputy Group Leader haunt us for the rest of our careers and we end up as a habitual troll on a blog complaining in petty ways about people who held us accountable and deluding ourselves that nobody knows who we are.
Over the last twenty years the climate at the labs has gotten so nasty that people above a certain level, those who could find good jobs outside, have all left. The lab managers didn't seem bothered at first: "No one is irreplaceable. There's an oversupply of Ph.D. We will just hire some new ones." But then it gradually dawned on them that they were not able to attract the replacements of the same caliber. So they have been forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel to fill their vacancies. And this is a self-reinforcing process, a death spiral.
The issue is not about educational pedigree per se above "fancy" vs "non-fancy" schools. The issue is about being unable to hire quality workforce. Most of today's science Ph.D. graduates no longer regard the NNSA labs an acceptable career path.
Most of today's science Ph.D. graduates no longer regard the NNSA labs an acceptable career path.
January 28, 2017 at 4:37 PM
That has in fact always been true. The vast majority have always preferred non-national security university positions that allowed research, teaching, and tenure-granted perks such as sabbaticals, overseas visiting professorships, outside consulting, and cadres of graduate students to do the actual work. Nice cushy job, no pressure beyond publishing once a year or so.
I'm sure there are some bright UNM and NMSU grads. But 99% of high school seniors don't say, "You know what, I can't decide between Caltech, MIT and UNM. I think I'll just go to UNM and get C+ grades." That's not reality. Reality is that the best students and performers go to the best schools and get the best grades. Only in the SNL and LANL reality distortion bubble are C+ UNM and NMSU students suddenly better performers than everybody else, even though these people would never get a job offer from the Googles of the world.
I agree that the best and brightest no longer have any interest in NNSA labs but look at what has been done to the labs. In the past we had 5 weeks of vacation per year, good pensions, sabbaticals, overseas visiting positions, outside consulting, and good students. The overhead was always much higher than at a University but you had lots of good equipment to work with, outstanding students and postdocs because the pay was really good, and a long history of supporting research that was deemed important to the country. All of that has been changed to "industry standards," not university standards. I wouldn't let one of my students work at one of the labs. There is zero commitment to research and they can get better benefits at a university or better money in industry. Stupid mangers and idiotic HR people think "industry standards" are good enough. What innovation is left? Even in the core mission, there just isn't much talent available. I can't imagine that we even have the ability to resume testing. I don't think it would be good to resume testing but who really knows how to put together a diagnostic package anymore? It would be nice if we could keep a few of the best and brightest to run things new or old such as testing but they aren't there for a reason: terrible management that thinks scientific talent is just a commodity (and if it were just that, they wouldn't be willing to pay for it). The only people the current management value are other managers and none of them have really done anything except get paid for expertise they don't have. At least the pensions of old allowed us to escape. The only "young" people left with any talent are hanging on because of the pensions which can't be transferred to UC anymore. For someone hired today, there is no reason anyone good would want to work there and one of the big reasons for that is managers like the new Sandia team.
"Hard to admit it, but the LANL managers that are going to SNL are better than a lot of the ones that remain at LANL.
January 25, 2017 at 12:26 PM"
Ouch!! If this is true, LANL is really in trouble. Who are your remaining managers? Addicts and molesters?
January 26, 2017 at 12:02 PM
Probably some of each, and maybe a few that count in both categories.
to Jan 30, 2017 4:36...Last post....
Amen to that. The real University brain trust that the labs were founded on was blown up 10 years ago. Its Bechtel arrogance and stupidity that has turned these once great institutions into a joke. Thanks Riley and DiFi....Good job!! I hope you choke the billions you stole from the taxpayers. A serious investigation is needed. LOCK EM UP!
They did things you didn't like. Boo Hoo. Get over it, it is history, and nobody cares.
January 30, 2017 at 4:36 AM
A new rumor is that UC does not plan on putting in a bid or being part of any bid for LANL. Has anyone else heard anything about this?
Ah yes. LLNL "the true story", crap-ass blog extraordinaire, where pension-collecting trolls go to whine about their claimed-but-nonexistent hardships.
Please, spare us the drama, the Trump-isms, and the anti-Obama sentiment (which is TRULY amazing given the events of the last 10 days - not that anyone here is actually conversant in facts), and give us some real facts.
"Ah yes. LLNL "the true story", crap-ass blog extraordinaire, where pension-collecting trolls go to whine about their claimed-but-nonexistent hardships.
and give us some real facts."
The irony in this is over the top.
Please, spare us the drama, the Trump-isms, and the anti-Obama sentiment
January 30, 2017 at 10:13 PM
What, you want this blog to be a "safe space"? Or do you just want "trigger warnings," Snowflake?
I don't work at the labs anymore. Instead I am a taxpayer, and seeing my donates go to fund a bunch of incompetents pisses me off. Does this make me a liberal feminist snowflake?
I'm not 10:54 AM, but I still want to know what "donates" are.
Snowflake really needs to take remedial English classes. She could use an introductory class in thinking too.
Hey 5:04 pm Bechtel manager. They tell the truth about the garbage you have done and you don't like it. Boo hoo. Wait until you leave your management position and see if anybody cares about you.
5:04 pm here. I'm not a Bechtel manager and never was. I just have no respect for people who gripe about their situation but don't have the balls to do anything about it.
To think that Steve Girrens will be certifying our Nation's nuclear stockpile is not only appalling but dangerous. Another example how the National Laboratory LLC concept allows unqualified individuals with no experience to rise to this level is hard to fathom.
January 25, 2017 at 3:30 AM
The summer students at Sandia will have more experience than Girrens. Really? Girrens, OMG, Sandia is in trouble.
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