News & Media
Kurt Schoenberg:
Steering LANSCE for the Future
Kurt Schoenberg, LANSCE User Facility Director and Los Alamos National Laboratory Deputy Associate Director retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory on October 1, 2015.
Over the past decade, Kurt has been integral in creating opportunities for LANSCE and the neutron community through the LANSCE User Program, open collaboration and outreach endeavors, as well as steering the facility through funding and programmatic challenges. He has striven to honor the vision of our founder, Louis Rosen, and worked as a steward of Louis' belief that LANSCE as an interdisciplinary facility would keep Los Alamos as the world leader in nuclear technology through international scientific excellence and "deterrence through competence". Not only has Kurt met Louis' iconic vision, he has also served LANSCE as an innovator in future concept facilities, creating a vision of the future of LANSCE on the path toward MaRIE.
As LANSCE User Facility Director, Kurt had overall operational responsibility for LANSCE and oversaw the basic, applied, and national security research performed at the 5 facilities that comprise LANSCE, including neutron scattering research at the Lujan Center, nuclear science and technology at the WNR facility, and national security research at the Proton Radiography facility.
Kurt received his B.S. in Engineering Physics with high honors from the University of Illinois in 1972. In 1979, he was awarded a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley and joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory's research staff. Schoenberg's research expertise and accomplishments, as documented by over 100 publications, include the experimental and theoretical investigation of magnetically and inertially confined plasmas for controlled thermonuclear fusion, intense particle accelerators, plasma accelerators, plasma-based space propulsion, missile interceptor systems, and high-energy-density-physics.
After his retirement, Kurt plans to plans to spend significant time in Europe as an EMMI (Extreme Matter Institute) Visiting Professor of Physics at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and as a senior scientific advisor. Kurt leaves LANSCE on a positive trajectory and we thank him for his dedication and leadership. We are a stronger facility thanks to Kurt's efforts and positive presence.
