She received a doctorate in engineering/applied science in 1994, continued at lab as postdoc
UC founded the lab in 1952, now runs it in collaboration with Bechtel and nuclear facilities contractors
Kim Budil, whose career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory spans 34 years, starting as a graduate student and progressing to postdoc after she received her Ph.D. in engineering/applied science from UC Davis in 1994, has been named the lab’s 13th director.
She is the first woman to hold the post since the lab’s founding in 1952 by UC scientists Ernest O. Lawrence and Edward Teller, the latter of whom also founded UC Davis’ Department of Applied Science. The lab came into existence at the height of the Cold War to meet urgent national security needs by advancing nuclear weapons science and technology.