Manuel Lujan: “I am here today to commemorate a life of public service dedicated to the expansion of human knowledge and the greater…”

“I am here today to commemorate a life of public service dedicated to the expansion of human knowledge and the greater good. On September 6 of this year, New Mexico and the Nation suffered a tremendous loss as Dr. Charles McMillan tragically passed away. Dr. McMillan, or Charlie as he insisted he be called by all who knew him, is perhaps best known for his work as a groundbreaking physicist and visionary leader of Los Alamos National Laboratory. Fittingly, Charlie's early career focused on developing tools and diagnostics for eye surgery. His innovations resulted in several patents and benefited countless patients. Over nearly 20 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Charlie was instrumental to maintaining and enhancing our Nation's security posture, leading experimental physics, and computing programs that were critical to modernizing the nuclear stockpile. In 2006, Charlie moved to New Mexico and became the tenth director of Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2011. Capturing the Lab's achievements under Charlie's leadership would be nearly impossible, but one area that shines particularly bright is Charlie's work on supercomputing.…”