LBNL Engineering Division

The Engineering Division’s Giorgio Vallone talks about his Genesis Mission project, what it’s like to work at Berkeley Lab, and how collaboration at the Lab can help solve challenging problems.

Read more: https://engineering.lbl.gov/2026/09/15/a-conversation-with-genesis-pi-giogio-vallone/

Highlighting our student assistants! Berkeley Lab’s Engineering Division welcomed around a dozen student assistants this summer. Our student assistants represent the next generation of innovation in science and engineering.

Read more about their work at the Lab here: https://engineering.lbl.gov/2026/08/18/the-next-generation-of-innovation-highlighting-engineerings-2026-student-assistants/

Why did we make a machine that looks like a pasta roller on steroids? A Lab researcher needed a way to quickly cool molten material–and engineering stepped up to help.

Learn more: https://engineering.lbl.gov/2026/08/24/engineering-a-custom-instrument-to-advance-battery-technology/

The Engineering Division’s Bobby Besuner reflects on his career as an engineer working on high-impact physics and cosmology instrumentation projects and what it has meant to work in the Engineering Division at Berkeley Lab. He will retire in December of this year.

Learn more about Bobby’s career at the Lab: https://engineering.lbl.gov/2026/08/21/bobby-besuner-to-retire-after-an-engineering-career-dedicated-to-advancing-physics-and-cosmology/

Mechanical engineering technician Matthew Petagara measures and adjusts a section of the booster-to-accumulator transfer line—known as a raft—before its installation inside the Advanced Light Source.

“To make future adjustments easier, the magnets are aligned together so that any upcoming adjustment can be conducted using the struts located on the bottom of the raft,” Petagara explains. “This allows us to later perform raft-to-raft alignments instead of re-aligning every magnet.”

The yellow pusher blocks visible under the orange magnet allow Petagara to make ultra-fine adjustments using the associated screw for the desired axis.

The booster-to-accumulator transfer line, a critical component of the Advanced Light Source upgrade, will move electron beams from the existing booster synchrotron to the new accumulator ring.

Celebrating our retirees! A cohort of 11 employees retired from Berkeley Lab’s Engineering Division this June.

These employees represent the Division’s ethos of innovation, excellence, and commitment to team science.

Read about some of our retirees' fondest memories and proudest achievements during their careers: https://engineering.lbl.gov/2026/06/29/commitment-to-science-stewardship-and-innovation-celebrating-engineerings-2026-retirees/

ATLAS update! The Pixel Support Tube for the ATLAS upgrade is in the Engineering Division workshop.

We’re currently working on test bonding the rails, which will support the Pixel Detector, to the interior of the cylinder. Test bonding is important because the detector only has a few millimeters of clearance on the inside of the support tube, so the rails must be bonded in place to a tolerance of about 0.5 millimeters! Once the test confirms the rails are in the correct position, the real rails will be bonded in place and the structure will be shipped to CERN for the next stage in its construction.

Explore the world of wire bonding—the specialized process of connecting a microchip to the outside world—and the ultra-delicate, hands-on work that makes it possible.

Read the story: https://engineering.lbl.gov/2026/07/23/made-in-berkeley-lab-revealing-the-secret-miniature-world-of-wire-bonding/