More than 300 Laboratory employees were recognized for outstanding achievements by the Department of Energy (DOE) and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with Defense Programs Awards of Excellence. The awards are given to individuals and members of small and large teams from the Laboratory's weapons program.
The awards included the DOE/NNSA Silver Medal, given to John McClelland, deputy associate director for experimental programs in the Principal Associate Directorate for Nuclear Weapons Program (PADNWP). Due to retire this month, he has been at the Laboratory for 25 years and has been instrumental in weapons physics, advanced radiography programs and accelerator physics. McClelland has been in his current position since June 2003.
A fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the APS Division of Nuclear Physics, McClelland received his doctorate in physics from the University of California at Los Angeles. McClelland's work on advanced radiography includes research and development in proton radiography, optimization of the Dual Axis Radiographic Hydrotest facility, and simulation and analysis of Advanced Hydrotest Facility design and theory.
Additional individual awards were presented to Sieg Shalles of PADNWP for his work on the annual assessment of the nuclear weapons stockpile, Patrice Stevens of PADNWP for her work on weapons surety and Cheryll Faust of Statistical Sciences (D-1) for her technical oversight of pit surveillance.
Team awards went to the Los Alamos Classified Media Library Start-Up team, the Armando Sub-Critical Experiment team, the Model Based Engineering W76 JTA Behavioral Modeling team, the Plutonium Casting team, the TEPLA team, the Weapons Manufacturing Procedures Task team, Detector for Advanced Neutron Capture Experiments (DANCE), the Process Engineering, Implementation and Maintenance Group, the Weapons Program Decision Analysis team, the High-Explosive Radio Telemetry (HERT) team, the ESD Technical Basis Development team, the Los Alamos Earned Value Reporting Team, the Lead Slowing-Down Spectrometer team, the Qual 2 Metallography team, the Understanding Neutron Tube Target Lifetime team, the W76-1 Acorn Sub-component Development team, the 4T Terrazzo Gas Transfer System team, the Concept Development team, the Full-Scale Test Facility team, the Los Alamos High Explosives Study team, the Los Alamos Pit Capacity Study team and the Los Alamos Radiography Study team.
Defense Programs Awards of Excellence are given to both federal and contractor employees for significant achievements in quality, productivity, cost savings, safety or creativity in support of the nuclear weapons program. The awards were presented to the winners by David Crandall, the NNSA's assistant deputy administrator for research, development and simulation, at a special ceremony held at the Laboratory last Thursday.
