Ask Steve Chu: The Role of Engineers

Dear Director Chu,

What is your vision of the role of engineers at this national laboratory? Specifically, how do you see the involvement of engineers in areas such as research, technology development, design of scientific
tools, and hardware fabrication? How do you feel about the way our engineering staff is organized versus how it is organized at other DOE national laboratories?

Sincerely,
Ken Chow

***

Ken,

National laboratories exist to address problems of scale. For that reason, a competent, capable engineering and technical staff is a foundational pillar of LBNL and one of the principal distinguishing characteristics between a national laboratory universities and industry. Of all of the multi purpose Office of Science laboratories, LBNL alone has an Engineering Division. I feel that this gives LBNL a great strength and advantage. It can foster multi-division initiatives and provide a mechanism where engineering expertise can be exposed to challenges across a number of domains of scientific endeavor. By sharing engineering methods, technical solutions from disparate disciplines can be applied to scientific problems across different laboratory divisions, thus fostering innovation and advancement. The capability to apply these talents in a timely fashion is one of our principal competitive advantages.

You asked about the benefits of how we are organized. By having a dedicated Engineering Division, LBNL is able to ensure professional and career growth that might otherwise be inadvertently neglected. Further, in many areas Engineering has a well-established role in the success of a number of divisions. I'm particularly excited about the ability to export the numerous technology developments that decades of DOE investment have fostered to new areas of research. Because we have concentrated many of our technology capabilities in the Engineering Division, we can nimbly transfer this knowledge elsewhere.

I consider the Engineering Division a major resource and asset to LBNL. Its relationship with the other LBNL divisions is important in achieving the laboratory's full potential. It is important to me that we foster an environment that will sustain a level of technical challenge and professional growth opportunities for engineers such as you. A strong and vibrant Engineering capability is one of our best guarantees that we can successfully attack the scientific problems which are most relevant to us as an institution.

Steve