Woods

Richard (Dick) Woods

Assistant Director,
Treasurer and Science Advisor

Biography:

Dick attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio graduating with honors in Physics. Dick received his Masters Degree in Physics with 3 years of graduate study at Yale University using a Van de Graaff Accelerator at MIT.

Dick was hired into the Van de Graaff group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1961. He supervised the installation, operation and improvements to the FN Tandem Van de Graaff from 1963-1977. The Van de Graaff facility was used for basic nuclear physics experiments and some experiments in support of the weapons program. Dick achieved Group Leader of two facilities on January 1, 1978, the Van de Graaff's and the Weapons Neutron Research Facility (WNR) at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF) an 800 MEV, 1 mA proton linac.

A major expansion was approved in 1986 for $18.5 million including a better target system, a new experimental hall, an office and computer building and new instruments. Mr. Woods was appointed the construction project manager and relinquished management of the Van de Graaff facility but continued as Operations Manager for LANSCE. Upon completion of this project in 1990 he accepted a change of station to the Department of Energy (DOE) in Germantown, Maryland. While there, he participated in the group reviewing all technical construction projects in the Energy Research Division laboratories of DOE.

In 1992 Dick returned to LANL where he was responsible for creating a proposal for an advanced pulsed neutron source facility based on LAMPF and estimated at $8 billion. This project was awarded to Oak Ridge National Lab. On September 30, 1994, Mr. Woods retired from LANL.

Dick’s community service includes four years as Chairman of the Finance Committee and two years as treasurer of the United Methodist Church in Los Alamos. In Evergreen, Colorado Dick is active in the East Mount Evans Resource and Environment (EMERGE) organization representing all residents in southeast Clear Creek County, particularly before the County Planning Commission. Presently Dick serves as Vice President on the board of EMERGE and Treasurer and science advisor for the Arapaho Project.