As a manager and central figure of ATAP’s safety program, you are pivotal to the health and safety of all those working at the Lab. What have been the highlights/stand-out moments for you?

Over my years at ATAP and its predecessor, the Accelerator and Fusion Research Division (AFRD), I’ve watched our laser physics group evolve from Wim Leemans, the division’s former director, working out of the two-room Laser Optics and Accelerator Systems Integrated Studies (LOASIS) lab, into the BELLA Center, with dreams of the future k-BELLA facility.

I’ve seen the Advanced Light Source (ALS) grow from an AFRD program into a separate division and evolve with the ongoing upgrade to the ALS (ALS-U). Our Superconducting Magnet Program has become an essential partner in developing accelerator facilities worldwide, including the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider Accelerator Upgrade Project (HL-LHC-AUP) and the upgraded Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray free-electron laser at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. I have also seen some of our other programs, including the Fusion Science & Ion Beam Technology Program, the Berkeley Accelerator Controls & Instrumentation Program, and the Advanced Modeling Program, and continue to develop innovative ideas with limited resources.

What changes have you seen in the safety culture during your time at the Lab?

(l) Herb Toor, a safety specialist at Berkeley Lab, and Pat Thomas on a safety walkthrough in B71 at the Lab. (Credit: Asmita Patel/Berkeley Lab)

When I arrived, Berkeley Lab was responding to the results of an intense Department of Energy “Tiger Team” audit by focusing on compliance with regulatory requirements and beginning to develop safety management systems. In the wake of the “total quality management” era, the focus was on performance goals, metrics, and documentation. Now, the focus is more on human and organizational performance improvement—making it easier for people to do the right thing and harder to do the wrong thing.

The first AFRD safety person, Dick Dicely, developed a self-assessment program called “QUEST” to raise awareness of safety issues in the workplace. QUEST became an annual tradition. When Asmita Patel, deputy division director for operations, joined ATAP, she suggested that Quality Assurance, Environment, and Safety Team (QUEST) assessments be combined with workplace clean-up as a “Safety Day.” This annual event expanded to include other divisions at the Lab and new activities, including cross-divisional management walkarounds and safety seminars.

As we began working closely with safety people at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory on the HL-LHC-AUP, they became interested in being included, so Multi-Lab Safety Week was born. This expansion has been a great benefit because it allows the participants to share lessons learned and best practices and has fostered continuing collaborations among safety Subject Matter Experts. This effort continues to grow, with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s laser safety group joining in 2024.

What advice would you give to other people in roles like yours?

One of the key things I learned in management consulting that also applies to safety is that problems are almost always the result of system defects, not personal failures. People behave rationally within the context of their organization; just changing people rarely fixes a problem—you have to work together to figure out what is wrong with the system and how to improve it.

While there are always opportunities for improvement, this is the best place I have worked. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to work at the Lab, surrounded by intelligent and creative people who are also team players. In addition, working in safety management has made me a better and more caring person. Thanks to the help of everyone I have worked with, I have been able to carry out my job effectively.

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