Dedication set for Tuesday
Laboratory Director Michael Anastasio, Principal Associate Director for Science, Technology, and Engineering Terry Wallace, Jr., and Los Alamos Institute Director Nan Sauer will formally unite the five Laboratory Institutes - the Engineering Institute, Materials Design Institute, Institute for Multiscale Materials Studies, Information Science and Technology Institute, and Institute for Advanced Studies - into what will be known collectively as the National Security Education Center (NSEC) – A Consortium of LANL Institutes, during a ceremony Tuesday afternoon at the Los Alamos Research Park.
According to Nan Sauer, the dedication of the Center is only one milestone along what has been conceived as a far-reaching path toward increased academic cooperation, enhanced scientific collaboration and scholarship, and technical work force development.
The National Security Education Center is an educational partnership unique in North America, and perhaps the world, for its national security focus. The NSEC will concentrate its efforts on developing and enhancing the scientific bases for national security. National security science at Los Alamos has evolved over the past several decades to encompass the elements of defense, homeland security, and infrastructure and energy security, as well as the science missions required for stockpile stewardship. The Laboratory pursues these broad, multi-disciplinary programs in order to anticipate America’s national security needs in a dramatically and rapidly changing world.
“The mission of the NSEC is to help Los Alamos and the nation train and recruit the next generation of national security scientists and engineers, while revitalizing and retaining the Laboratory’s current world-class technical staff,” said Sauer.
Sauer emphasizes that maintaining and reinvigorating the current technical work force is an important element of the NSEC’s strategic plans. “There will be an increasing role for the Institutes––through the NSEC––in helping keep Los Alamos National Laboratory a compelling and intellectually stimulating place to work.”
Following the dedication, guests will attend a reception and then be given the opportunity to visit a student poster session and tour the newly renamed Institute spaces.
