Chapter 6 The 1990s: Black Monday

The 1990s were turbulent times for shock wave research at Sandia because of the near elimination of experimental shock wave research, including experimental facilities. Three management decisions led to this challenging event. The first decision was implementation of a laboratory-wide restructuring of management in the early 1990s. As a consequence, all Sandia departments, including the second-level (i.e., the original department management level) ones that involved shock wave research managed by George Samara and Jim Asay, were dissolved. The first-level divisions (now renamed departments) that had been supervised by Samara and Asay became individual departments under the direct supervision of two different directors. In addition, Walt Herrmann stepped down as the Director of Engineering Sciences; that was the directorate in which Asay’s shock wave department had resided. The directorate was then eliminated, and the shock wave divisions that Asay had managed were transferred to Ed Barsis, who was the Director of the Computing Research Center. This resulted in a two-level management structure, with each director supervising the direct-reporting managers, as opposed to the previous situation in which three or four second-level managers reported to each director.