President Milliken shared the following reflections on his Substack, The Gold and the Blue, Volume 22

One of the privileges of serving as president of the University of California is seeing firsthand the extraordinary work carried out across our university. That includes getting to know the three national laboratories that UC helps manage on behalf of the federal government — Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley, and Lawrence Livermore — institutions where UC’s research mission intersects with some of the most important scientific and global security work in the world.

I have always loved history, so I had been looking forward to the opportunity to visit Los Alamos National Laboratory. Los Alamos sits on a mesa in the high desert of northern New Mexico, above the Rio Grande, surrounded by an awe-inspiring landscape. Los Alamos was established here in 1943 as Project Y, the Manhattan Project’s secret weapons-design laboratory. Its director, J. Robert Oppenheimer, came from UC Berkeley, where he had helped build one of the greatest schools of theoretical physics in the U.S. At Los Alamos, he led the development of the atomic bomb, one of the most consequential scientific undertakings in modern history. During my visit, I stood outside his modest home. That contrast between the ordinary setting and the extraordinary stakes of the work undertaken here stuck with me.

Los Alamos is a fascinating part of American and world history, and I see why Professor Gage chose to highlight it in her recent road-trip history. But it’s not just a historic site. It remains a hub of scientific breakthrough and discovery. Nearly 18,000 people are engaged in some of the nation’s most important scientific and national security work, from nuclear deterrence to basic research in biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science. More than half of the laboratory’s research and development staff previously came through its postdoctoral program. Many of our students, interns, and postdocs work here, and a remarkable number stay. That includes many people with UC connections: approximately 600 current employees came through UC-related pathways, and roughly 100 UC students are currently participating in laboratory programs. I hope we can continue to support and expand this pipeline in the years ahead.

Laboratory Director Thom Mason provided an outstanding overview of the Lab’s work in a changing global security environment and how it balances its national security mission with its broader scientific enterprise. Los Alamos is one of 17 national laboratories in the federal system, funded and overseen by the Department of Energy. UC is one of three partners in the Triad consortium that manages the laboratory, a governance structure that reflects both the complexity and the importance of the research happening here. That relationship stretches back more than eight decades, making it one of the longest partnerships in UC’s history.

I came away from this visit with a deepened appreciation for what the University of California’s partnership with Los Alamos does for the university and the country. The collaboration between great research universities and the national laboratory system has been one of the most productive scientific partnerships in history, born out of wartime urgency and sustained by excellence. It is worth protecting and strengthening.

I am grateful to Director Mason and the entire Los Alamos team for a remarkable introduction to a remarkable place.

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