Former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory dead after car crash in New Mexico

CHARLES McMILLAN, 69, former director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and a leading figure in U.S. nuclear weapons research, has died from injuries sustained in a car accident in New Mexico. 

McMillan, an experimental physicist, had a distinguished career spanning nearly 23 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and approximately 18 years at Los Alamos, where he served as director from 2011 until his retirement in 2017.

The accident occurred early Friday morning on Main Hill, a road near the laboratory. McMillan was transported to a hospital but did not survive, according to police and the current director of the lab.

Thom Mason, the current director of Los Alamos, offered condolences, stating, “On behalf of the entire Laboratory, I would like to express our deepest sympathies to the McMillan family and to the many current and former employees who worked closely with Charlie and knew him well,” as reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican.

Michael Drake, president of the University of California system, praised McMillan as “an extraordinary leader, scientist, and human being who made significant contributions to science and technology in service to national security and the greater good.”

McMillan joined Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2006 following his friend and mentor Michael Anastasio's appointment as director. He served as the principal associate director for weapons programs before becoming director in 2011. During his tenure, he oversaw both the lab’s expansion and various safety incidents, including a 2014 radiation leak at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in southern New Mexico, which led to more than $10 million in fines for health and safety violations.

Mason highlighted McMillan’s contributions to HIV vaccine development and climate change modeling. Democratic U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico acknowledged McMillan’s “invaluable contributions to our state, science, and national security,” noting his work in supercomputing and artificial intelligence. Nella Domenici, Heinrich’s Republican challenger for U.S. Senate, described McMillan’s death as “a great loss to the scientific community and his family.”

Los Alamos police and fire officials reported that three people, including McMillan and a 22-year-old woman, were hospitalized after the crash, which occurred around 5 a.m. The cause of the accident is still under investigation.