Dept. of Energy, which due to lab mistakes, also occurred in 2014 at the Carlsbad plant with significant disruptions and costs across the industry. In 2009, 69 computers which did not contain classified information were lost. The same year also saw a scare in which 1 kg (2.2 lb) of missing plutonium prompted a Department of Energy investigation into the laboratory. The investigation found that the "missing plutonium" was a result of miscalculation by LANL's statisticians and did not actually exist; but the investigation did lead to heavy criticism of the laboratory by the DOE for security flaws and weaknesses that the DOE claimed to have found. Institutional statistics LANL is northern New Mexico's largest institution and the largest employer with approximately 8,762 direct employees, 277 guard force, 505 contractors, 1,613 students, 1,143 unionized craft workers, and 452 post-doctoral researchers. Additionally, there are roughly 120 DOE employees stationed at the laboratory to provide federal oversight of LANL's work and operations. Approximately one-third of the laboratory's technical staff members are physicists, one-quarter are engineers, one-sixth are chemists and materials scientists, and the remainder work in mathematics and computational science, biology, geoscience, and other disciplines. Professional scientists and students also come to Los Alamos as visitors to participate in scientific projects. The staff collaborates with universities and industry in both basic and applied research to develop resources for the future. The annual budget is approximately US$2.2 billion. Directors J. Robert Oppenheimer (1943–1945) Norris Bradbury (1945–1970) Harold Agnew (1970–1979) Donald Kerr (1979–1986) Siegfried S. Hecker (1986–1997) John C. Browne (1997–2003) George Peter Nanos (2003–2005) Robert W. Kuckuck (2005–2006) Michael R. Anastasio (2006–2011) Charles F. McMillan (2011–2017) Terry Wallace (2018) Thomas Mason (2018–present) Notable scientists Stirling Colgate (1925–2013) Bette Korber Emily Willbanks (1930–2007) Mitchell Feigenbaum (1944–2019) Richard Feynman (1918–1988) In popular culture In the hit TV show Breaking Bad, the protagonist Walter White is a former employee of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. See also Anti-nuclear movement in the United States Association of Los Alamos Scientists Bradbury Science Museum Chalk River Laboratories Federation of American Scientists Clarence Max Fowler David Greenglass Ed Grothus Theodore Hall History of nuclear weapons Hydrogen Moderated Self-regulating Nuclear Power Module National Historic Landmarks in New Mexico National Register of Historic Places listings in Los Alamos County, New Mexico Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Timeline of Cox Report controversy Timeline of nuclear weapons development Venona Project Notes References Further reading External