LIFE AS A PHYSICIST AT LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY
Dr. Kirsten Howley
This talk will be followed by a lunch discussion on student and career opportunities at LLNL.
We live in a world subject to threats, and for more than 65 years Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has worked to strengthen our national security to make the world a safer place. LLNL applies world-class science, technology and engineering that enhances the nation’s defense, reduces the global threat from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction, and responds with vision, quality, integrity and technical excellence to scientific issues of national importance.
As a physicist at LLNL, I’ve had an opportunity to work on a number of projects that aim to keep our nation safe. These projects range from post-detonation forensics to provide answers if a nuclear detonation in the United States were to occur, to the development and testing of a technology to prevent another industrial disaster such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, to asteroid hazard mitigation that prepares us for low probability but potentially high consequence threats from asteroid impacts. These projects share the commonality that all focus on issues related to national security. Each project requires a unique application of a variety of physics and engineering skills that include, but are not limited to, computational/simulation physics, experimental design and execution, and theoretical and analytic model development. In this talk, I discuss this subset of projects, and give an overview of the technological challenges and achievements involved in their successful execution.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is actively looking to grow and expand its pool of scientific experts. We have positions available ranging from summer internships, to graduate student scholars, to postdoctoral fellowships, to staff appointments.
Following this talk, there will be an open discussion with the current acting Design Physics division leader, Benjamin Grover, on the qualifications and experience we look for in our recruits. During this discussion we will provide feedback on preparing a CV and for interviewing at LLNL. Pizza will be provided.
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