NNSA Los Alamos Field Office Manager Mike Weis/Photo Courtesy DOE/NNSA

BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration Los Alamos Field Office Manager Mike Weis is leaving Los Alamos National Laboratory in May. LANL Director Thom Mason mentioned Weis’s departure during Wednesday morning’s virtual LANL Community Conversation saying Weis is returning to the Office of Science in Chicago in May.

Weis joined the Los Alamos Field Office in November 2019 after formerly serving as the Field Office Manager for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. He has also worked as Site Office Manager at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Deputy Manager at the Richland Operations Office in Washington. Weis served on the senior management team of the Rocky Flats Closure project in Colorado, and also worked for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management in Washington, D.C., where he reviewed resource management on cleanup projects around the nation. 

Weis made a presentation on the Los Alamos Field Office Tuesday evening during the Los Alamos County Council’s virtual meeting but never mentioned his planned departure. He had been at the helm for just three months before the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect LANL operations.

“It’s been a challenging time since I arrived in 2019 but the staff outperformed itself, I learned a lot and  I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to work with this outstanding group of woman and men at the Field Office,” Weis said in an NNSA email Wednesday afternoon.

The NNSA has announced that Ted Wyka, Principal Deputy Associate Administrator for NNSA’s Safety, Infrastructure and Operations organization, will return to Los Alamos in June to serve as Field Office Manager. Wyka spent a couple of years in Los Alamos recently as deputy manager for Technical Operations. Among his responsibilities were providing management, leadership, direction, coordination, day-to-day guidance and implementation of technical activities and oversight and surveillance of the Management and Operating contract at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

In the interm, Pete Rodrick of NNSA’s Livermore Field Officer, will be detailed to Los Alamos to cover the transition.