Berkeley Lab engineers helped build ATLAS, one of the largest and most powerful particle detectors in the world, and now they’re working on the next-gen upgrade. Meet engineers Todd Claybaugh, Neal Hartman, and Eric Anderssen, and hear what it’s like to be part of team science.

Mike Barry, the Engineering Division’s Deputy of Operations, will be retiring after 29 years of service at Berkeley Lab. Read about Mike’s journey from the US Navy to playing an essential role in guiding and shaping #engineering at the Lab. Read more: bit.ly/43mCHXk

How can tiny #robots measure entire galaxies? See how Berkeley Lab #engineers created Iris, a prototype for mapping the primordial universe.

youtube.com/shorts/47Rj1... Spec-S5 will map 200 million stars, scaling DESI from 5,000 to 25,000 fiber positioners . Zooming in on one of the smallest aspects of Spec-S5, mechanical engineer Nick Wenner explains Iris, a tiny robot with massive potential.

@lbnlengineering.bsky.social Technicians and engineers have achieved a major milestone, completing a 2-year project to wind the closed-loop coil for the MARS-D magnet. Find out how this incredibly challenging and technically difficult work was accomplished: bit.ly/49apX9F

@lbnlengineering.bsky.social More than 20 years ago, Berkeley Lab engineers helped build the Pixel Support Tube for the @atlasexperiment.bsky.social at CERN. Today, the Engineering Division is finishing work on the Pixel Support Tube for the ATLAS HL-LHC Upgrade Project–with much of the same team!

Take a tour through the Advanced Light Source tunnel—a place that is rarely exposed to view. Here, it is shown open for maintenance activities and the installation of the new Accumulator Ring! The Engineering Division’s Kyle McCombs provides a look into this major ALS upgrade.

Our #ElectronicsEngineers are designing #microchips for extreme environments. Learn about the prototype microchips we’re developing that will function immersed in vat of liquid argon at temperatures of around -300F. Read about the microchip: bit.ly/4tqfJK0

Engineering Division #Machinist Mike Gronley inspects the thickness of a prototype fiber-positioning robot, which he fabricated in the Lab’s machine shop. The piece required tight tolerances and thin features. It is for Spec-S5, a next-gen instrument that will map the universe using #Spectroscopy.

A supercomputer doesn’t just arrive, it’s built piece by piece.This timelapse shows delivery and installation of Cech, an early-access system preparing for the Doudna supercomputer at @nersc.bsky.social, from moving massive cabinets to system integration. #QuantumComputing #DiscoveryToDelivery

Work in the Engineering Division’s mechanical shops can be incredibly varied, from building ultra-advanced scientific instrumentation to partnering with staff across the Lab to solve a technical issue. Recently, the team reverse-engineered end bells for a server room chiller. More: bit.ly/4sc0nIG

Watch the installation of our new #CNC machine. The process involved building a special foundation, craning large parts into place, and calibration. Full video here: bit.ly/3N9eVJY

@lbnlengineering.bsky.social @berkeleylab.lbl.gov is enabling the next generation of microelectronics—and the Engineering Division is helping make it possible. Learn about Engineering’s own Seno Rekawa, Chief Engineer and Deputy Director at the Center for X-Ray Optics. More: bit.ly/4lhwRie

@lbnlengineering.bsky.social Take a look at our new large-format computer numerical control horizontal boring mill! It was delivered over a five-day period in early December 2025. The new machine gives a big boost to the capabilities in the Engineering Division’s shops. More: bit.ly/4aGQk8c

Take a peek at a mandrel for a canted-cosine-theta (CCT) superconducting magnet coil, machined by the Engineering Division. It will form the inner layer of a four-layer, proof-of-concept magnet. Read more: bit.ly/463L1x1 #Science #Research #Innovation #Engineering #Magnet #MadeinBerkeleyLab

Big news arrives in big packages in the Engineering Division! We’re putting the finishing touches on a new CNC horizontal boring mill, bringing powerful new capabilities to our shops—including multi-axis contour milling, precision boring, drilling, and tapping. #Engineering #Milling #PrecisionBoring

Team science then and now. Scientific and technical staff posing within and on top of the magnet for the 60-inch cyclotron in September 1939 vs the Engineering Division’s ALS Mechanical Technology Group posing in the ALS in 2025.

Made in Berkeley Lab: a custom-built electronics chassis for a programmable logic controller, designed to protect people and equipment. “I am especially proud of achieving a clean, structured cable layout despite the tight spacing,” says Vinnie Aromin, electronics technologist who made the chassis.

The Engineering Division is part of a multi-lab effort to build #superconducting magnets for the Large Hadron Collider Upgrade project at #CERN.

Our #Engineering Small Project Support team recently designed a custom small-batch chemical reactor, helping bridge a critical gap in testing new #chemistry processes before upscaling them to larger experiments. Read more: bit.ly/4pVPBVG

Made in Berkeley Lab: the plasma chamber at the heart of heavy ion accelerators. This piece of equipment includes about 30 individual components, which were fabricated and assembled over 350 hours of machining, welding, leak detection, & ultra-high-vacuum cleaning. More: bit.ly/4rRkdtc

Step into the heart of the @als.lbl.gov and see what happens during a major shutdown. Watch the full story unfold: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPv_...

Engineering can take you to unexpected places. In 2009, Berkeley Lab Engineering Division Electronics Engineer Thorsten Stezelberger and Nuclear Science Division Senior Scientist Spencer Klein camped on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica while testing hardware in the field. Read more: bit.ly/3XNXj7U

@lbnlengineering.bsky.social LuSEE-Night will test the effectiveness of radio antennas on the far side of the Moon and gather data about the Dark Ages of the Universe. A lot of engineering has gone into this instrument, which must operate in an intense lunar environment. More: bit.ly/46AWkNH

🏅 Former Berkeley Lab senior scientist John Clarke has won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics. His research on quantum tunneling in electric circuits paved the way for today’s quantum computers and sensors. 🧠 This brings LBNL’s Nobel count to 17! @nobelprize.bsky.social @uofcalifornia.bsky.social

CERN is the beating heart of particle physics. It is the center of the world for that,” remarks Berkeley Lab Mechanical Engineer Todd Claybaugh. Claybaugh has made several trips to CERN to support the upgrade of ATLAS’s Inner Tracker. He snapped this pic at CERN in Dec 2024.

Components engineered @berkeleylab.lbl.gov will support LuSEE-Night, which will test the effectiveness of radio antennas on the far side of the moon and gather data about the Dark Ages of the Universe. This image shows a detailed view of parts designed at the Lab. Read more: bit.ly/46AWkNH

A view from the Engineering Division's mechanical fabrication facilities. Machinists prepare to move a plinth for the Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) onto a large-format horizontal boring mill for additional machining. #Engineering #LabLife #BoringMill #Machining

At CERN, the final precision pin is inserted into the outer cylinder, which is part of the support structure for the ATLAS Inner Tracker upgrade. Berkeley Lab engineers built this carbon-fiber composite cylinder and are part of the team making this upgrade happen. Learn more: bit.ly/3JmB1qd

Meet the undulators that will revolutionize scientific research! Berkeley Lab #engineers have created nine new #undulators and retrofitted 21 existing undulators for SLAC's LCLS-II-HE upgrade. The first photo shows a completed undulator; the second photo shows the magnetic undulator components.

CERN’s ATLAS detector, the largest detector ever constructed for a particle collider, has been undergoing a multi-year upgrade to overhaul its innermost tracking system. Learn about the role Berkeley Lab engineers are playing in this massive scientific undertaking: bit.ly/3JmB1qd

Our engineers are prototyping next-gen fiber-positioning robots for the planned @desisurvey.bsky.social upgrade. #Engineering #Robotics #DESIsurvey #EngineeringatWork

Happy birthday to Ernest O. Lawrence, founder of @berkeleylab.lbl.gov, born August 8, 1901. He received the Nobel Prize for inventing the cyclotron, an antecedent of the modern-day ALS. He also pioneered the concept of Big Science – an approach we still follow! Watch a short video: bit.ly/3HbKjUW

See our incredible rigging team in action at the @als.lbl.gov! More about roof blocks here: physicalsciences.lbl.gov/2025/07/28/a... Video: Thor Swift, Berkeley Lab

A delicate dance with 20-ton concrete blocks. Eighteen enormous concrete blocks will be moved at strategic locations around the historic Advanced Light Source building this summer in a carefully executed engineering operation. Find out more: bit.ly/4lKlL4y Photos: Thor Swift, Berkeley Lab

The shell and yoke structure of one of the new superconducting magnets being assembled @berkeleylab.lbl.gov for the HL-LHC at CERN. Once installed, these will be the first niobium-tin-based magnets ever used in a particle accelerator and will increase the LHC’s luminosity by a factor of ten.

The evolution of purpose-built #synchrotron #magnet housings, as our #engineers work to get the design just right. Magnets in a synchrotron act like a high-speed traffic system, steering electrons and keeping them in the right "lanes." Getting the magnets in the right orientation is essential.

#GRETA will be the world’s most sensitive gamma-ray #spectrometer when it comes online later this year. Learn about the #engineering that went into this powerful instrument, which will soon be probing the fundamental building blocks of the universe. Read about GRETA: bit.ly/46yCJhs

Go behind the scenes with our engineering team as they help build the next-generation ATLAS detector for @cern.bsky.social.

Then and now! Our Mechanical Fabrication Shops, shown in July 1973 and today. The shops are an incredible resource for the Lab, and they continue to evolve to meet the demands of cutting-edge engineering and science. Curious to know more? Read about the shops here: bit.ly/3GvktLg

One of ABend power supply racks for the @als.lbl.gov upgrade is hoisted into place by the ALS Mechanical Technology Group. Installing these racks in the tight confines of the accelerator pit presents a significant challenge! The team made multiple test runs to ensure successful installation.

AI Meets Laser Tech Engineers and scientists have successfully used #machinelearning to stabilize a high-power laser, minimizing jitter and improving beam pointing accuracy. This advancement has applications in physics, medicine, and energy. Read more: bit.ly/45sbzIM #LaserTech #Engineering

Discover how researchers at @BerkeleyLab are driving technological innovations and advancements in theory to help unlock the potential of #fusionenergy which promises abundant, reliable energy. @DOEScience @ENERGY @lbnlengineering @LBNLcs @LBNLnuclearsci Read the article here

The turkeys, the jaw-dropping bay views, the collaborative culture – discover what makes Berkeley Lab such a unique place to work. #Engineering #TeamScience #EngineeringWithaView

Did you know that we’re helping to build the new #ATLAS detector for #CERN?

Making something that is one-of-a-kind or first of its kind? There is a place at Berkeley Lab that can make almost anything you can dream up. Explore our Mechanical Fabrication Shops: physicalsciences.lbl.gov/2025/05/20/s...

#MechanicalEngineering Technician Nathan Seidman examines connections on the assembly for GRETA. “The assembly is quite beautiful in a scientific sort of way, so even when I am shoulder-deep and frustrated, trying to access a buried liquid nitrogen line, it's never too bad of a time,” Seidman says.

Step inside the cutting-edge world of our Mechanical Fabrication Shop — featured in this month’s Make: Magazine! Get a behind-the-scenes look at the shop and the talented team supporting the incredible science happening at Berkeley Lab. Engineering makes it happen! makezine.com/article/work...

Tight squeeze? No problem! A custom-designed and built “bottom-up” lift tool is moving rafts—containing magnets, vacuum chambers, and more—through the narrow space of the #ALS accelerator tunnel. Our #engineers created the lift to install rafts without removing a roof block or using a crane.

Our engineers are busy bringing science to life. These images show the birth of GRETA, the world’s most sensitive gamma-ray spectrometer, from design and fabrication to the completed instrument. GRETA will help reveal the mysteries of atomic nuclei and the creation of elements in dying stars.