History & Reflections of Engineering at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
I thought it was important to relate how this project began. Jens Mahler, Mechanical Engineering Deputy Associate Director, recalls that during a discussion between him and Wally Decker, Wally suggested that he document the significant events and the organization of the Mechanical Engineering Department since 1952, i.e., write a history of Mechanical Engineering. Jens agreed that Wally should begin this effort. Upon learning of this, Dave Pehrson, Deputy Associate Director for Engineering, suggested that the History be expanded to include Electronics Engineering and that it be called A History of Engineering. Dave asked me to join Wally on this effort and, unfortunately, Wally died shortly after I started. In the first part of this History, I have attempted to capture the important contributions that Engineering has made to the Programs, since Engineering's primary mission is to provide ''support to the Laboratory Programs.'' In the later parts you will find views discussing the development and application of Engineering's technology base. While Engineering's direct programmatic support had first priority, Engineering had other responsibilities as well. Some of these were to hire and train a competent technical and leadership staff, to anticipate and develop engineering technologies for future use by the Programs, to provide support to institutional activities, to be the vehicle for internal technology transfer, to provide for the movement of personnel between Programs, to groom individuals to assume programmatic and institutional leadership positions, and to develop, operate, and maintain facilities. Engineering developed the reputation as ''the flywheel of the Laboratory.'' It was also known as willing to provide people for tasks broader than just primarily technical roles, such as membership on salary review committees, and members and chairs of the student policy committees and safety groups. This History is not a compilation of facts only but a reflection by many individuals of what they viewed as important contributions during their careers at the Laboratory. I thank them all for taking the time to write their inputs to this document. Finally, I want to acknowledge all the former and current members of Engineering: engineers, associates, coordinators, drafters and designers, technicians, administrators and clerical, who in their own way made Engineering what it is. For after all is said and done, Engineering's primary assets were and are its people.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- US Department of Energy (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 15006849
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-ID-147148; TRN: US200412%%250
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 18 Apr 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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