NNSA Administrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty cuts the ribbon Thursday dedicating the new Donald M. Kerr Office Building at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Also pictured are NNSA Los Alamos Site Office Manager Michael Weis, right, and Laboratory Director Thom Mason. Photo Courtesy LANL
LANL NEWS
At a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Thursday at Los Alamos National Laboratory, a new modular office building was officially named the Donald M. Kerr Office Building, in honor of the former Laboratory Director.
Department of Energy National Nuclear SecurityAdministrator Lisa Gordon-Hagerty and NNSA Los Alamos Site Office Manager Michael Weis were on hand cut the ribbon to dedicate the building, which is the first top-secret facility to be built at the Laboratory in 15 years.
“It was just a year and a half ago when we stood here with gold shovels for the ground-breaking ceremony for this very special new facility,” said Nancy Jo Nicholas, Associate Laboratory Director for Global Security.
Kerr, who did not attend the ceremony because of the pandemic, served as the fourth director of Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1979 to 1985.
After leaving Los Alamos, he held many distinguished positions within the U.S. national security intelligence community. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on October 4, 2007 as Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence until March 2009. And he is the recipient of the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal. “It’s very fitting that a building where important intelligence work will be performed is named after someone who was such an important leader both at the Laboratory and in the intelligence community,” said Nicholas.
Prior to his role with National Intelligence, Kerr served as the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office and as Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force for Intelligence Space Technology. From 2001 to 2005, Kerr served as Deputy Director of Science and Technology at the Central Intelligence Agency, and received the CIA Distinguished Intelligence Medal in September 2005. He also served as an Assistant Director of the FBI in charge of the Laboratory Division from 1997 to 2001.
Kerr is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is frequently published on issues related to nuclear weapons efforts, national security and arms control, energy technology, and ionospheric research.