Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory (LBNL)

Membership: Our in-person activities, although limited, have begun to increase as noted below and some present opportunities to increase our membership. The EX-Ls appreciate the generous financial support from the CUCRA travel program that will help support these efforts.

Concerns: We have had a number of in-person events. Attendance is modest, and we would like to see more people turn-out. We have very large attendance for our Zoom talks, for which we are very gratified. While we are anxious to resume in-person meetings, we will continue Zoom talks for those not able to attend in person. It is, however, very important for the Ex-Ls to continue some meeting in person to enable members to chat with people that they know, to meet others who worked at the lab, and to recruit new members. Having live events ,hopefully, will facilitate filling the Ex-Ls leadership positions that remain vacant.

Activities: The Ex-Ls hosted two very timely talks on Zoom: the first: Dark Energy and a Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and a second: Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), Perhaps the Ultimate Transformational Technology for Accelerating Scientific Discovery. Our association has been co-hosting social events like Happy Hours with other Berkeley Retiree Associations. The association also arranged a second tour of the LBNL Advanced Light Source for Center Retirees. The Ex-Ls participated in a “Life in Retirement” panel and will attend a Cal baseball game in May with other Berkeley collegues. We are looking forward to the Director’s reception for new and current Retirees in June.

Retirement Center Interactions: UCBRC moved to another new office space on the Berkeley campus. The Center continues to offer very stimulating learning experiences, Including a most informative talk on Bird Flu by John Schwartzberg. We continue to be grateful for the considerable support that Cary Sweeny and Camille Koue continue to provide us from the Berkeley Retirement Center. We greatly appreciate the various tutorials about life in retirement that are presented by the Center. They are very helpful to our membership.