Q: What do you plan to do to ensure that the UC maintains its managerial role in the national laboratories?

A: Thanks for the question. We are very active in a variety of ways, but most importantly, our focus is on improving our business practices as we maintain and enhance the quality of our science and technology. We also are close to identifying a vice president for lab management who will work on the relationship between the laboratories, UC and the DOE [Department of Energy]. We are proceeding assuming that we will compete the contract for LANL [Los Alamos National Laboratory], and we are talking with potential partners who will help strengthen our operations. The decision for competition will not be made, of course, until the DOE releases the conditions of the contract, which should be late fall 2004.