- #1
The Kid
I just registered as this looks like an interesting site. I just turned 71, getting up there. I am retired, about sixteen years now, from Los Alamos National Laboratory after working in Los Alamos for 30 years. Fantastic place to work, and quite interesting as well.
I was a Senior Test and Measurement Technician in our group and worked independently which meant I tested and measured some mighty interesting things, if I may say that. The measurement of high energy neutrons 'paid my rent' so to speak , and they brought with them a whole set of challenges but that of course was the interesting part. Had it been just a matter of using previously established methods that would have been quite mundane not to mention the current state of the art was insufficient for our needs so, as my supervisor put it, I was to have the privilege of developing a new method if a better one could be found.
Now, as you might imagine, we had some serious resources at our disposal and no deadlines as we did not know if we could come up with a 'better way' at all. like poker, there were no guarantees.. The one caveat, based on the fact that we were in Health Physics therefore our method would be used for dosimetry, was what we did had to be good. It had to work and it had to reliable, accurate and have enough precision to be repeatable and withstand auditing. But on the other hand there was no deadline in fact I wasn't sure I could come with anything better than what was the current standard.
So was that a cool job or what? We flew our detectors on the Space Shuttle and in some other interesting test regimens It worked out very well for us and turned into a years long path which ended up having numerous other areas of interest as a result of much of what we did. So, as I mentioned it really was a great place to work and as a US navy veteran I was proud to be serving my country in the Cold War also. was great. Lot of work, lot of fun and some really cool folks. That was the best part.
Enough of me except to say I still live in the area and still love it. Thanks for listening.
I was a Senior Test and Measurement Technician in our group and worked independently which meant I tested and measured some mighty interesting things, if I may say that. The measurement of high energy neutrons 'paid my rent' so to speak , and they brought with them a whole set of challenges but that of course was the interesting part. Had it been just a matter of using previously established methods that would have been quite mundane not to mention the current state of the art was insufficient for our needs so, as my supervisor put it, I was to have the privilege of developing a new method if a better one could be found.
Now, as you might imagine, we had some serious resources at our disposal and no deadlines as we did not know if we could come up with a 'better way' at all. like poker, there were no guarantees.. The one caveat, based on the fact that we were in Health Physics therefore our method would be used for dosimetry, was what we did had to be good. It had to work and it had to reliable, accurate and have enough precision to be repeatable and withstand auditing. But on the other hand there was no deadline in fact I wasn't sure I could come with anything better than what was the current standard.
So was that a cool job or what? We flew our detectors on the Space Shuttle and in some other interesting test regimens It worked out very well for us and turned into a years long path which ended up having numerous other areas of interest as a result of much of what we did. So, as I mentioned it really was a great place to work and as a US navy veteran I was proud to be serving my country in the Cold War also. was great. Lot of work, lot of fun and some really cool folks. That was the best part.
Enough of me except to say I still live in the area and still love it. Thanks for listening.
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