r/LosAlamos

Enjoy a night out presented by those with massive conflicts of interest bringing us so much good “justice”! Only $150 per ticket!

I’m moving to the area soon, and I have quite a few complex & chronic debilitating health related issues. I was wondering if Los Alamos has a fair amount of practitioners/facilities and how your overall experience has been with them?

Any info?

There needs to be more than two ways out of town for some sort of emergency. If this mess that we are all sitting in right now is an orderly drive home and getting around one crash, imagine how bad it would be if everything was on fire, flames visible from downtown, and everyone was panicking. This is ridiculous!

Greetings, Los Alamos Redditors, I have been offered a Scientist 3 job at LANL. Although the offer is still verbal, it is substantially below what I expected, based on my 15 years of postgraduate experience and 11 years of post-PhD experience, and the job advertisement details, specifically, ~10% below my expectations. I hold a tenured position at an R1 Research school in a major metropolitan area that is exceptionally rich in many respects, while highly affordable to live in. I have freedom in my research, in what I teach, and in what I propose to do each year. The new job at LANL will give me only 10% freedom in what I decide to do, will likely require clearance, which is not guaranteed, and if not granted, I will have to rely on soft money for my continued employment at LANL. While I have realized that many people appreciate LANL and Santa Fe's natural beauty, we have found the neighborhood rather isolated, desert-like, and, to be honest, disappointing during a few visits (perhaps it was our bad luck to visit during a dry winter). The housing price (for properties effectively located in the middle of nowhere, in some areas with no network connection) is unbelievably high for us. We expect a baby soon, and I just saw a post in this forum that the only delivery room in Los Alamos will close soon. I am considering this offer because my spouse currently holds a contract with one of LANL's research groups, and the supervisor wants to keep my spouse as a staff scientist.

From my perspective, I do not see many good reasons to accept this offer. Even though the LANL job pays ~30% more than my current job, that extra pay is already eaten up by the insane housing market around LANL. I'd effectively be trading a tenured job and a low cost of living in a metropolitan area with virtually endless resources for a ~30% raise in salary in a different state with a higher tax rate.

Is there anyone already employed at LANL who has made such a move from academia who could share their experience with us? Am I missing any factors in my calculations about the LANL job offer? When I visited LANL for the interview, a very senior high-ranking LANL official asked me (perhaps with a bit of sarcasm and humor), "So, you have decided to make more money (by joining LANL)?" I did not decide to join LANL for the benefits and pay. But I do not consider the offer that I have received any more rewarding than my current job. Thanks for any advice and feedback, and apologies for the relatively uninterested tone of this post toward LANL.

It was mostly about how much the author hates off key singing, and how "without power, there can be no karaoke" ...

Los Alamos EV owners: Can you comfortably drive to Albuquerque and back on a single charge in any weather? If so, what model do you have?

I know plenty of EVs have published range between 250-300 miles, but it's not clear that will hold up in real conditions with our region's terrain and hot and cold weather.

Hey all,

I just got offered a position for the Plutonium Facilities Engineering group and was hoping for some honest feedback.

• How draining is the 45 min commute from Santa Fe? I'd prefer living closer, but Los Alamos is limited and Espanola seems like a no-go zone
• Rules around music/podcasts? I come from a defense contractor where phones were mostly allowed, just wondering if folks use MP3 players or stream YouTube/Spotify
• What's the age demographic like? I'm in my early 20s and really don't want to be the only young person around.
• Any other quality-of-life stuff you wish you knew? I'm moving from a large city in the Midwest.

Trying to get a realistic picture of life here. Thank you!

Fuck you and I hope you got a ticket at minimum. Fire truck was on its way when we called it in and it’s already out thankfully. The flames were all but hitting the trees in their yard when we first drove by which is insane—and it was a middle unit on a townhouse! People are so selfish.

I have been looking for a place to live for almost two months and my job starts w/in the month. There are so many sporadic conversations about housing that it makes me nervous that I have not found something yet. Im moving from WA so I have very little time left to get going. Although there is relocation assistance, I am skeptical considering I have very little money, as it is very expensive in WA, to help get me moving so not sure how this will work. I have read that people are mostly pleasant so as a POC, that is calming. Hopefully, that is accurate. Ive read a lot about high crime too. So if anyone has recommendations, I would appreciate. Im already anxious about the overall experience as I do not know anyone there and weather… please help.

Hey guys, looking for some info/recs as I was just accepted into a intern position at LANL,

Mainly I'm looking for more ideas for finding short term housing, Ive joined all the FB groups (3) that LANL provided for Recs but I was hoping to see if there were any other, or sites, I thought of AirBNB and those, but they seem to be a lot of houses and spotty availability

And also, transportation, how is the bus system, and if I'm close enough, are there any shops that sell EBikes? So I'm able to get around town if need be

Thanks

My office has been pretty negative lately, especially with the hiring freeze, so it's been hard to avoid feeling down about working at the lab. I recognize I'm in a very small bubble that isn't representative of the entire lab, though. SO, especially employees that have been here less than 5 years, share some of your positive experiences working at LANL!

EDIT: while I recognize the benefits are a MASSIVE perk and privilege, what about the positives concerning the work itself?

Power is out. Based on next door, is out everywhere.

Stay safe, Cottonwoods.