Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Kimberly S. Budil, Ph.D
Director, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
M.S. and Ph.D., Applied Science/Engineering, University of California, Davis
B.S., Physics, University of Illinois at Chicago
Director Kim Budil leads a workforce of nearly 8,000 employees and manages an annual operating budget of approximately $2.7 billion. As Laboratory Director she shares the responsibility, along with the directors of Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, of providing the U.S. President, through the Secretaries of Energy and Defense, an annual assessment of the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, and whether confidence in the stockpile can be maintained without a nuclear test. She is strongly committed to LLNL’s tradition of scientific and technical excellence in service to the Nation.
Budil has more than three decades of experience across LLNL’s scientific and national security programs. She most recently served as the Principal Associate Director for Weapons and Complex Integration, responsible for the programs that ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the Nation’s nuclear deterrent as well as advancing the supporting science, technology, and engineering capabilities. Prior to this, she served as the Vice President for National Laboratories at the University of California Office of the President, where she led the University’s oversight and governance of LLNL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. She served twice on special assignment in Washington, DC, including as a Senior Adviser to the Under Secretary for Science at the Department of Energy (DOE). She has served on many boards and committees and has been an active champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion at the national labs and beyond. She has M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in applied science/engineering from University of California, Davis where she was the recipient of a Hertz Foundation Fellowship, and a B.S. in physics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Budil completed a certificate in national security affairs from the Bush School of Government and Public Policy at Texas A&M University. In 2019 she was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society.