Director's Achievement Awards 2021

Click the image to the left to view the video for the virtual ceremony of the Lab's annual Director’s Awards. This ceremony is an important moment in the life of our Lab community where we have a chance to recognize some of the exceptional achievements of our dedicated and talented staff.

This year we honor Bob Glaeser, Howard Padmore, and Horst Simon with Lifetime Achievement awards. We are awarding Berkeley Lab Citations to Jeff Blair and Chris Lundell for Exceptional Achievement.

In addition, eleven individuals and five groups are being recognized for their contributions in a wide variety of areas including operations, science, service, and societal impact. You can read more about the laureates and their accomplishments.

Midday Science Cafe: Changing climates, changing landscapes: What does this mean for the future?

In this month’s Midday Science Cafe, we’ll speak to scientists who ask one of the most pressing questions in climate change: How does climate change alter landscapes and what are the downstream effects of these changes? First, we’ll hear from Dr. Erica Siirila-Woodburn, a Research Scientist at Berkeley Lab who will discuss how mountains -- which are known as nature’s water towers because they store, capture, and release water for downstream use -- are especially sensitive to climate change.

Dr. Kerri Johnson, a Postdoctoral Scholar at UC Berkeley, will then discuss how climate change is projected to make hillslope soils more vulnerable to erosion, a consequence that has far-reaching impacts on ecosystem health, downstream water resources, and global carbon distribution. We’ll also hear how both scientists use field sites to help them understand current conditions and model future scenarios. Dr. Siirila-Woodburn uses measurements from and models of a watershed located in the Upper Colorado River Basin, one of the most comprehensive watershed research projects in the world. And Dr. Johnson uses a well-controlled natural experiment on Santa Cruz Island, CA, to explore the influence of microclimate on patterns of hillslope soil erosion.

Bay Area Research SLAM

The Bay Area Research SLAM is a collaboration between the Bay Area's National Labs ( Berkeley Lab, Livermore Lab, Sandia Lab, and SLAC Lab). The SLAM is a competition where contestants are challenged to present a compelling three minute presentation of their research in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

Click the image to the left to play the video. Select 1080p HD in the lower right corner for the best video playback quality.

44th Virtual LBNL Runaround

For 43 years, the Runaround brought hundreds of employees together to run, walk, bike, and even hula hoop, up and down the hills of the Lab’s main site. This year, pandemic safety precautions and teleworking will not enable the traditional race to take place.

This year, a new virtual approach will be used. Staff and their families are invited to participate in the Lab’s 44th Runaround via Zoom OR staff can exercise outside between Oct. 15 at 12:30 p.m. and Oct. 29, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. Take part by doing any 30 minutes of movement like running, walking, dancing, or hula hooping. Take a picture to document your activity.

T-Shirts

Participants with an employee or affiliate ID number are eligible to receive a T-shirt with this year's design. Fill out the online T-shirt request form with your mail stop. The form can be completed between Oct. 15 at 12:30 p.m. and Oct. 29, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. If you have a photo of your participation, attach it to the online form.

You will also receive a t-shirt if you are willing to volunteer to stuff T-shirts into envelopes at LBNL (date TBD 2022), in compliance with all COVID-19 safety policies.

Future of Work Town Hall

During the pandemic, we quickly learned to work in entirely new and creative ways. Although we have faced a few challenges, we’ve been very successful. It’s clear that after this experience, the Lab and the professional world will never be the same.

We are getting ready to adopt new processes that formalize more flexible modes of work. We recognize that our former paradigm of everyone coming to work at Lab sites isn’t the only way to accomplish the Lab’s mission. While it’s true that many of our jobs can only be accomplished on site, others can be successfully completed by coming together several times a week or a few times per month. For some, working remotely accomplishes the mission and is the best option for the individual and the Lab.

This change in the way we work will require us to be innovative, flexible, and agile. We’ll learn as we go, and we will make changes as needed. People have asked if there is a specific date for this change. The conversations start now, but the changes we are discussing will not be fully implemented until the local pandemic safety measures are no longer needed.

Please take advantage of this time to read the information and talk with your colleagues about the best way to work while still delivering on the Lab’s mission.

Berkeley Lab Research SLAM 2021

The 2021 Berkeley Lab Research SLAM took place on Thursday, September 23, 2021 virtually through ZOOM. The culminating live event was co-hosted by David Gilbert, Senior Manager of Communications and Outreach at the Joint Genome Institute, and Sinead Griffin, Staff Scientist at the Material Sciences Division.

Twelve finalists took the stage to communicate their science in a clear and concise three minutes to impress the panel of esteemed judges. This year, the second place award recipient received the People's Choice Award. Lydia Rachbauer in Biosciences took the coveted grand prize this year!

Midday Science Cafe: How the Basic Elements of Life are Advancing the Frontiers of Research

The periodic table represents a chemical blueprint for organizing the elements of life. By analogy to an orchestra, each element can be thought of as an instrument with a unique sound and personality. In this month’s Midday Science Cafe, you’ll meet two chemical biologists who not only listen to the music that nature plays by studying the structure and properties of elements, but also actively compose music by developing new ways to harness elements to advance the frontiers of research.

Berkeley Lab scientist Kathy Shield will walk us through the f-elements, the elusive, and often dismissed, bottom two rows of the periodic table. These elements have truly amazing properties: some are radioactive, some glow, some help cure cancer, and some power your cell phone. UC Berkeley researcher Dr. Eva Ge will introduce us to the wonderful world of metals, which are essential for life and the function of all DNA, RNA, and one-third to one-half of all proteins. Additionally, unique properties of metals, such as spin or radioactivity, can be harnessed to create new diagnostics and therapeutics in medicine.

90th Anniversary Speaker Series: Founder's Day Celebration

Join us in a virtual celebration as we culminate the Lab's 90th anniversary. Featuring special guest Jennifer Granholm, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, plus brief remarks from Lab leaders about what the next 90 years may have in store, a conversation between Lab employees and young people about the importance of mentoring and how we can tackle climate change, and the announcement of the "Happy Birthday" video contest winners.

90th Anniversary Speaker Series: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe

Hear from Associate Lab Director Natalie Roe about the Lab's 90-year history conducting world-leading physics research, and learn about three cutting-edge cosmology experiments that will shed light on the interactions between matter and energy, how those interactions shape our world and the universe around us, and why applications of matter and energy are important to our day-to-day lives.

Click the image to the left to play the video. Select 1080p HD in the lower right corner for the best video playback quality.

90th Anniversary Speaker Series: Leveraging Machine Learning for Science

Machine learning – a branch of artificial intelligence – is a powerful scientific tool that can reveal profound insights hiding in ever-expanding datasets. This presentation will demonstrate how researchers are using machine learning to spur discovery and innovation in a diversity of fields, from energy and the environment to agriculture, novel materials, and beyond.

K-12 Education Live Science Series: Scratching the Surface

Discover how the art of DJing in Hip Hop culture and STEM intertwine in collaboration with MacArthur Fellow physicist, Dr. Carl Haber, Bay Area artist Jahi, and Berkeley Lab's own DJ Miles Green. Learn about the physics behind vinyl records and turntables, and the significance of them in the history and culture of Hip Hop. See live demonstrations on the turntables, an exploration on sound and sound restoration, along with various STEM connections to the turntable.

90th Anniversary Speaker Series: Tools that Enable Science Around the World

Berkeley Lab is home to a number of unique, large-scale, and advanced scientific research facilities that play an integral role in our nation's research enterprise. Researchers from across the country and around the world are leveraging these facilities to develop solutions to some of the most critical scientific challenges of our time, from tackling the climate crisis to probing the origins of our universe. Tune in to learn about three of these state-of-the-art facilities and how they are advancing fundamental science, driving innovation, and improving the world we live in.

NERSC Perlmutter Supercomputer Dedication

Our next supercomputer will be an HPE Cray system named “Perlmutter” in honor of Saul Perlmutter, an astrophysicist at Berkeley Lab who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to research showing that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Dr. Perlmutter will be present at the dedication. He has been a user of our National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) for many years and part of his Nobel Prize-winning work was carried out on NERSC machines. NERSC is available to researchers from around the nation and the world and assists some 7,000 scientists annually. The name reflects and highlights NERSC's commitment to advancing scientific research.

90th Anniversary Speaker Series: Game Changing Solutions in the Fight Against Climate Change

Tackling the climate crisis and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 are top priorities for the Biden Administration. How will the nation meet the ambitious plans the President has set forth? Key to the conversation is the deployment of negative emissions technologies (NETs), which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere or other sources.

To meet this challenge, Berkeley Lab has launched the Carbon Negative Initiative, which will address the basic science required to scale these technologies, develop new life-cycle analyses for integrating NETs into future decarbonized energy and industrial systems, and identify the most promising directions for future NET research.

Operations Career Development & Networking Workshop

The inaugural Operations Career Development & Networking Workshop was held on Friday, April 23, 2:00-3:30p.m. The purpose of this event and future workshops is to highlight and serve the interests, talents, and professional development of current and future business operations staff at Berkeley Lab.

• Carolyn Charles, Senior HR Partner, Panel Consultant

• Jeremy Coyne, OCFO Indirect Budget Manager

• Ellen Ford, Deputy Chief Operating Officer

• Bill Johansen, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Laboratory Director for Research

• Janie Pinterits, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Program Manager

• Meg Rodriguez, Program Manager, Career Pathways Office

Basics2Breakthroughs: Deciphering the Plant Microbiome

Berkeley Lab Postdoc Researcher Jonelle Basso is getting to the root of plant-microbe interactions which can lead to more efficient and sustainable crops that produce food, plant-based biofuels, and bioproducts.

Research at Berkeley Lab starts with basic science which leads to innovative breakthroughs that have changed the world. The Basics2Breakthroughs video series focuses on early career scientists discussing their research and what they hope for the future in that research.

Credit: Marilyn Sargent - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Virtual Lab-wide Town Hall

On April 21, 2021 Director Mike Witherell presented a virtual tour of physical changes at the Lab in the past year, reviewed research highlights and discussed how the Lab's research ties into the current administration's goals. He also discussed the Lab's core values, stewardship and being a citizen of the Lab.

Click the play button to the left to watch the event. Before you begin, click the gear in the lower right corner to select 1080p HD video quality.

A valid Berkeley Lab LDAP credential is required to view the video.

Women @ The Lab Virtual Awards

Berkeley Lab and LBNL’s Women Scientists and Engineer’s Council (WSEC) are proud to honor an outstanding group of women Lab employees for its fourth Women @ The Lab event. Your attendance will reinforce your commitment to diversity and the development of effective scientific and operations staff at the Lab.

The celebration highlights Berkeley Lab women and their success stories - scientists, engineers, and operations staff who are working to change the world for the better. By promoting the achievements of these 15 brilliant women, we hope to continue to inspire a new generation of women to enter the STEM workforce, where their participation could lead to important breakthroughs.

Celebrating Berkeley Lab Royal T

A celebration of Berkeley Lab innovation honors Lab inventors and software developers whose contributions are helping to advance the industry. Honored guests include Vanessa Chan, the new Chief Commercialization Officer at the Department of Energy, Lab scientists and industry representatives whose inventions and businesses are making a difference.

The virtual event celebrates Lab inventors who have received a royalty check from the licensing of their invention or software in the last year, as well as new inventors and software developers. This event is hosted by the Intellectual Property Office at Berkeley Lab.

Justice40 and a Transformative Vision for Energy Justice at DOE

The Justice40 Initiative promises 40% of the benefits of certain federal investments, including investments in clean energy, to disadvantaged communities. On March 19, 2021 the Department of Energy’s first Deputy Director for Energy Justice, Shalanda H. Baker, discussed the Justice40 Initiative and her transformative vision for energy justice at the Department.

Click the image to the left to watch the video.

Berkeley Lab COVID-19 Safety Update

On March 8th, the Lab Directorate held a short webinar for all employees to review COVID-19 safety at the Lab. The Department of Energy asked all national labs to have an employee safety call to provide an opportunity to hear what the Lab has done to maintain a safe working environment in the past year.

Click the video to the left to learn more.

A Gentle Introduction to 5G Networks and Shared Spectrum

The first half of this talk will provide a brief introduction to key drivers and capabilities of 5G networks and highlight technologies that enable these capabilities. In the second half, we will discuss concept of shared spectrum - a key regulatory/policy innovation Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has advanced in recent years to release new high-quality spectrum needed to remove roadblocks to 5G deployments.

Berkeley Lab's 90th Anniversary Kickoff

In 2021, Berkeley Lab’s 90th year, we’re celebrating past achievements and imagining tomorrow’s solutions. Investment in discovery science takes patience, and the payoffs are profound and often surprising.

Join us as we continue this journey for the next 90.

Click the play button to the left to watch the event. Before you begin, click the gear in the lower right corner to select 1080p HD video quality.

For more information and upcoming events, click here.

Director's Achievement Awards Ceremony

The annual Director's Awards took place on Thursday, November 12th. The Director’s Awards program recognizes significant achievements of Lab employees.

Each year, these awards are given for accomplishments, leadership, collaboration, multi-disciplinary science, cross-divisional projects, and commitment to excellence in support of the Lab’s mission and strategic goals.

Click the image on the left to play the video.

LabTech 2020 Keynote Session

LabTech is a free, annual event created by and for Lab staff and friends that focuses on computing and technology for science and operations. LabTech features technical tutorials, discussion sessions, networking opportunities, demonstrations, and more.

Watch the keynote presented by IT Division Director, Adam Stone.

Click here to view all Lab tech session videos.

Conversation with UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May

Throughout his career, UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May has championed diversity and mentorship in higher education and the workplace. Chancellor May joined Lab Director Mike Witherell at a Lab-wide Town Hall on August 18, 2020 to discuss the challenges of achieving equity. ​

Click the play button to the left to watch the event. Before you begin, click the gear in the lower right corner to select 1080p HD video quality.