Thom Mason to host virtual public town hall June 23

Los Alamos National Laboratory director Thom Mason will hold a one-hour virtual public town hall June 23, giving Los Alamos County residents and other New Mexicans a direct line to the lab’s top leader on the issues that shape daily life here. The session runs from 6 to 7 p.m. on ZoomGov, and LANL says no advance registration is required.

The laboratory is promoting the event as its first virtual town hall of the year, and the setup is meant to widen access well beyond the mesa. LANL says employees, their families and community members across New Mexico are invited to tune in, and questions may be submitted live or in advance to AskLANL@lanl.gov. For a county where the lab’s decisions ripple into commutes, housing demand, business spending and county services, the format matters as much as the agenda.

That scale is why Mason’s public appearance carries real economic weight. LANL’s FY2025 economic impact report put the lab’s annual budget at $5.28 billion, said it paid $2 billion in employee salaries across six northern New Mexico counties, and reported $752 million in spending with local businesses. The lab also said it spent more than $380 million with New Mexico small businesses. The Albuquerque Journal reported that LANL employed 16,487 people, excluding contractors, and funneled roughly $2.9 billion back into New Mexico through salaries, gross receipts tax revenues and procurement contracts.

Past town halls show the kinds of questions residents are likely to bring on June 23. At a December 2025 virtual session that drew about 200 online viewers, Mason said the laboratory’s mission was on solid footing in fiscal year 2026. LANL also said at that meeting that PF-4 had moved to a full 24/7 schedule to meet plutonium pit-production workload, and that it expected a possible FY2026 budget increase to roughly $5.8 billion, about 12% above the prior year’s request. Traffic, housing and environmental stewardship were also part of that discussion.

Mason leads Los Alamos National Laboratory as director and as president and CEO of Triad National Security, LLC. LANL says he works with federal sponsors, partner laboratories and regional stakeholders on national defense, scientific discovery and economic vitality for Northern New Mexico, which is exactly why a simple Zoom meeting will draw close attention across Los Alamos County.