Budil's first update

 LLNL Public Affairs Office

Date: March 2, 2021

A message from the new LLNL Drector, Kim Budil

Colleagues,

I’m very excited and honored to be writing my first email update as Lab director. I look forward to using these notes to update you on what I have been up to, new directions the Lab is taking, the news of the day, or whatever else is consuming my thoughts at the moment. I hope you find this bit of insight valuable and look forward to hearing back from you when something resonates or begs a question. I also am looking forward to my first all hands meeting as director, where I can provide a view into my early days on the job and plans for the future. One of my strongest beliefs as a leader is that you cannot communicate too much and I hope to test that maxim.

As I noted when I was announced, being selected as the director of LLNL is the honor of a lifetime. Having the opportunity to take the helm when the Lab is in such a good place and has been so ably led is a gift. But that does not mean this is a time to rest on our laurels. There is much work to be done and many opportunities on the horizon. I look forward to working with the whole team to bring big ideas with real technical ambition to the most important challenges facing the nation and the world today.

It is not very difficult to identify the major challenges of the day – a nuclear deterrent and enterprise that both require modernization; the threat from emergent pathogens; a changing climate driving ever more severe weather events; a vigorous multipolar, great power competition; and rapid advancement in disruptive science and technology that is increasingly international in character. These challenges will require our best ideas, bold action, our sustained commitment to national service, and the whole Lab coming together as one team. Our desire and ability to translate innovation into impact is exactly what is needed in this moment.

On the home front, the senior management team and I are committed to continuing to improve our culture. We believe that diversity in all its dimensions – race, gender, sexual orientation, educational background, lived experience and more – is an essential ingredient of excellence and innovation. Each of us should feel welcome and encouraged to bring our authentic self to work each day so we can contribute to the fullest extent. Our work environment should be supportive and inclusive, but must never be weak or easy. The intellectual environment must be challenging – ensuring that our ideas are sound and our work is excellent – requiring each of us to bring our “A game” every day. Each of our choices and interactions contributes to our culture, and we need to embrace our ability, and responsibility, to personally shape it for the better.

I’m very excited to get started, and I hope you share my sense of optimism, purpose and urgency. It’s time to lace up our track shoes…

Take care and stay safe,

Kim