This month, LANL celebrates its first year under the leadership of Los Alamos National Security LLC. As you'll read in Mike's message to you, we've been busy making improvements and meeting some exciting milestones that will result in a stronger Laboratory. As always, you are invited to let us know how we are doing. Just send me an email or give me a call and I'll be sure to share your thoughts directly.

Make it a great June!

In that year, we have met mission milestones, made significant improvements in safety and security, garnered recognition of our outstanding science, and developed 12 institutional goals that will help ensure our future, which can only benefit our communities.

We've boosted our efficiency and effectiveness

• We absorbed increased costs without sacrificing mission or our commitment to employees.
• We improved physical security and cyber security by reducing risks and eliminated and consolidated our classified material.
• We dramatically improved safety--with 30 percent fewer injuries than in the prior year.
• We began a new era of fully contained high- explosive tests of DARHT, a massive X-ray machine built to provide valuable freeze-frame photos of materials imploding at speeds more than 10,000 miles an hour.
• We witnessed the successful launch of the Cibola Flight Experiment, a small-but-smart satellite experiment now orbiting 350 miles above earth.

We plan and act for a successful and sustainable future

• We have successfully launched the first phase of the Roadrunner supercomputer.
• We launched Performance Based Leadership, an effort to improve leadership Labwide, and Human Performance Improvement, a leading approach to minimizing risk and maximizing performance.
• We initiated a Labwide process improvement effort.
• We continue to focus on our student pipeline to recruit and retain the best and the brightest for our future.

We're more accountable and reliable than ever

• We met 103 out of 104 New Mexico Environment Department Consent Order deliverables on time and have since completed the outstanding action.
• We added dimensions of oversight and accountability, including a demanding and expert Board of Governors, a Contractor Assurance System, and accountability to our colleagues and employees.
• We have a Community Commitment Plan focused on education, economic development, and community giving, and it includes regional investments in these three areas.

I am excited about what lies ahead for the Laboratory-- and our communities. The best is yet to come.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has been a sponsor of this event and will be returning with entertaining and educational presentations about the Physics of Pancakes and the Science of Syrup. The Bradbury Museum's Science on Wheels van will also be on display at the Plaza.

Advance tickets for the breakfast are $5 and will be on sale at Santa Fe banks, credit unions, United Way of Santa Fe County office, PNM Customer Service, LANL Community Programs Office, and Beaver Toyota. You can also buy tickets at the Plaza on the day of the event for $6. Please join us on the Plaza on July 4!

Los Alamos County Council adopted a list of "Guiding Principles" on utilizing the taxes for projects that would enhance regional partnerships and address strategic goals with a regional context. The Council also approved using up to $1.5 million per year of gross receipts tax revenue for these regional initiatives.

Communities and organizations from across northern New Mexico received commitments for over a million dollars of financial support for regional initiatives from the Los Alamos County Council. Organizations who received funding included: the North Central Regional Transportation Department (NCRTD) for $1.1 million and the Espanola Basin Regional Planning Issues Forum for $150,000. Another $250,000 was designated for award to a planning entity to be selected by County for the development of a Regional Economic Development Strategic Plan.

Ten seniors attending Coronado, McCurdy, Mesa Vista, Espanola, Pojoaque, Penasco, and Escalante high schools were among the recipients of ten $1,000 scholarships. Each recipient was selected on the basis of academic excellence, demonstrated leadership, commitment to community service, and desire to positively impact the communities that have supported them.

The MSA began in 2000 with support from the Laboratory, several school districts, the Northern Network for Rural Education, and a number of private entities and businesses. The goal of the MSA is to increase student achievement by improving teacher practice.

The MSA program is unique because it was developed to address the complex and challenging issues of teaching and learning. The program consists of intensive training during a three-week summer institute, site-based meetings after school every other week, cognitive coaching 4-5 times a year, development of individual reflective portfolios, and online discussions with the whole MSA community every other week. The teachers commit 186 hours to MSA over their contract every year for a minimum of three years. The MSA focuses on standards-based education using the most recent research-based concepts and instructional strategies.

Lori Heimdahl-Gibson, former Engaging Latino Communities for Education (ENLACE) director, initiated the first meeting of adult leaders in April. Gibson has worked with youth in both communities. She said discussion with adult leaders from both towns prompted the idea to pursue a program in which youth leaders from Espanola and Los Alamos could get to know and trust each other by working on projects of mutual benefit. Ideas and outcomes for this initiative from the Los Alamos youth leaders were presented at the April meeting. The second meeting concluded with the formation of committees for the adults to work on funding, logistics, and coaching; and a committee to research long-term, educational leadership courses and credit incentives for youth.

For more information about this youth initiative, contact Lori Heimdahl-Gibson at 662-3159.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has an annual budget of $1.6 billion, works on stewardship of existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons, and conducts research on the environment, energy, and other projects.

The technology, called NOx HyCat, that Ott developed could enable the U.S. to switch from inefficient gasoline vehicles to more efficient diesel cars, trucks, and SUV's. Diesel engines deliver up to 35 percent higher fuel economy than gasoline engines. However, they are also a major source of particulate and smog-forming pollution, particularly nitrogen oxides (NOx). Ott developed NOx HyCat to clean exhaust streams from diesel engines, dramatically reducing pollution from diesel exhaust.

Although Ott and his team invented the technology for vehicles, CleanAir is developing it for use in a variety of applications, including large diesel vehicles, power plants and "leanburn" engines.

Economic Development

• Kudos to Peter McMillin, of Burns and Roe, who is the new LANL Consortium chairperson!
• Kudos to Beverlee McClure, new president of the Association of Commerce & Industry.
• Kudos to Fred Mondragon, new Cabinet Secretary for Economic Development.
• Kudos to the following who were recently honored by PNM and WESST Corp. Linda Ruckel, owner of Advance Tax Services Inc. of Santa Fe, named entrepreneur of the year. Stevie Springer, owner of Chex Axel, received the rising star award. Brinda Ramanathan, a native of India , owner of Serafina Technical Consulting in Santa Fe received the pioneer award. And Michael and Alice Romero, owners of Michael's Mini Mart in Velarde, were named the rural entrepreneurs of the year.

Community Giving

• Kudos to Eric Griego, who was recently named executive director of New Mexico Voices for Children.