Meet Alex Baker: Deputy Group Leader, Advanced Materials Process Science
Alex Baker wears many hats at LLNL; his roles run the gamut from project leadership to operations efforts to scientific research of his own. Being from the United Kingdom, he traveled quite a distance to get here, but it was no accident.
Baker completed his PhD at Oxford University and Diamond Light Source, one of the UK’s national labs, during which he regularly visited collaborators at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He thus had the chance to experience the multidisciplinary environment of Diamond while also learning how national laboratories work in the United States. On one Bay Area visit toward the end of his PhD, he ended up meeting with LLNL’s Scott McCall regarding local career opportunities. The meeting was a success, and he landed at LLNL once his PhD was complete.
As a materials physicist, Baker processes and characterizes materials and studies the underlying physics governing their properties, particularly at elevated temperatures. His focus is on material security and supply chains, with the aim of revitalizing domestic industries for vulnerable materials such as rare-earth elements, which are at present primarily processed and refined in China. This includes work to qualify new resource streams, develop new processing routes, and improve the products that reach the market.
“We've done a lot of work on additive processing as well as more conventional routes, moving a material down the chain from conception, through synthesis and heat-treatment to deformation processing to form a desirable microstructure,” said Baker. His research involves interdisciplinary, collaborative work with researchers at other government institutions like Pacific Northwest, Oak Ridge, Ames, and Argonne national laboratories. He also serves in a leadership role at LLNL, as a deputy group leader for Advanced Materials Process Science in the Materials Science Division (MSD). “I mostly see myself as being a cheerleader for the five people in my subgroup,” he said.
His role in MSD Operations grew from experience managing lab spaces, where Baker developed an interest in the formal side of the operations work needed to support research activities. He is currently involved in an effort to clear the B235 basement of legacy materials and other abandoned items and transform it back into functional lab and storage space. Baker is also an authorizing individual for much of the work in B235, a role in which he supports principal investigators with approvals and resources they need for their projects. “I've learned a lot about operations over my ten years here,” Baker said. “I’m really trying to help extend that to other people, ensuring that unfamiliarity with processes doesn’t lead to slowdowns in the work we need to do.”
Baker finds most rewarding the proximity to experts at Livermore, enabling him to work with others and find unconventional solutions to problems he encounters in his own work and for those he supports. “I find it special how willingly so many experts here will share their expertise. If you find the right person, you can solve your issue and learn something valuable along the way,” he said. Outside of work, he enjoys cooking, canning, and taking backpacking trips, but lately most of his time has been spent with his wife and their new daughter.
—Lilly Ackerman
