Newswise — The search for the next director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is underway, Charlene Zettel, University of California (UC) regent and chair of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) announced today.

LLNS operates the Laboratory for the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA). As agreed to by the LLNS partners, UC is responsible for leading the search. Bill Goldstein, the Lab’s current director, announced earlier this month he would retire pending the selection of his successor.

The search process will be similar to prior director searches for all three UC-affiliated labs (Lawrence Livermore, Lawrence Berkeley and Los Alamos national labs). The process includes a search committee and screening task force, along with a virtual “Lab Day” planned for early September to hear from employees, management and the NNSA Livermore Field Office. Input from this gathering will be used to develop selection criteria to assess the candidates involved in the search process.

Zettel will chair the search committee, while Charlie McMillan, former Los Alamos director and before that a longtime employee of LLNL, will lead the screening task force. Opus Partners has been selected to assist in the national search.

The position has been posted nationally and on the UC job posting site, as well as the LLNL Director’s Search website (https:director-search.llnl.gov).  The website includes instructions for the nomination and application process and identifies the members of the screening task force and the search committee. The website will be updated as the search process progresses.

Nominations and applications are to be submitted by Oct. 15, 2020 to the email addresses noted on the job posting. All communication to these addresses will be held in confidence. The search committee also will be charged with holding all discussions and information in complete confidence.

At the conclusion of the process, the candidate nominated by UC for Laboratory director will be submitted to the chair and vice chair of the LLNS Board of Governors for approval and to the Secretary of Energy for concurrence.

“LLNL has an outstanding history of science, engineering and technology in support of the nation, and the selection of a visionary leader is critical to the Laboratory's continued success,” Zettel said. “The selection of the Lab’s next leader is a responsibility that all of us involved take very seriously. We have an impressive group of individuals providing advice and counsel, and I am confident we will have an exceptional outcome.”