How Virginia Manner, PhD, Tackles Scary Things

Author: Rebecca Bosco, EdD

Photo: Virginia Manner, PhD, reviewing lab test results at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Los Alamos, at the Forefront of Scientific Discovery and Innovation

"I wish I knew what I was doing when I found a job at Los Alamos National Laboratory," Dr. Virginia Manner reflects. As a student researcher at LANL, Manner was a bewildered and apprehensive graduate student, working to navigate her academic journey alone.

As a student, Manner's passion for science was steadfast; however, she felt that the conventional academic route was uninspiring. She harbored a desire for a role that was professional and educational—and that contributed to national security in the United States and served the greater good. Her innate curiosity and intuition propelled her on a path less frequented by women pursuing professional careers in research and development (R&D) laboratories.

As Manner searched for a postdoctoral position, she came upon LANL and felt an immediate connection. Her formative education in chemistry allowed her to align with a position focused in solar energy research, a field that resonated with her previous work. However, after she delved into her new position, she discovered explosives. It was through focusing on this subject that Manner experienced profound excitement and contentment in her day-to-day work for the first time. The range of diverse research activities, hands-on work at the firing site, and engaging in global security projects invigorated her focus. This focus, and fascination, continues to drive her—as she reflects on a career trajectory that has come full circle, from her initial focus on hydrogen atom transfer kinetics to her current role in explosive degradation kinetics.

Personal and Professional Connectedness

"I think most people feel like they don't belong at one point or another in their careers," Manner notes. To mitigate this disconnection, she has learned to shift focus towards projects that ignite her passion, actively seeking research endeavours that inspire such enthusiasm that fitting in becomes irrelevant. This enthusiasm fuels her creativity and new ideas, proposals, and contributions.

Reflecting on her journey, Manner understands that her actions have contributed to the success of her team. She shared, "The more successes and progress I am a part of, the more I create an environment where I truly belong because those accomplishments wouldn't have materialized without my involvement."

"That's Why You Can't Fail"

Manner has experienced challenges along the way to her career. In graduate school, she faced the daunting task of synthesizing a new ruthenium molecule to explore its kinetics, and became frustrated with each failed attempt at creating the molecular system. During this time, she approached her advisor and shared, "If I fail with this new system, people will think that it's not the synthesis that's hard, that the problem is me." Manner shared that her advisor responded, "That's why you can't fail." This pivotal conversation seared into Manner's day-to-day during graduate school and despite the challenges, she ultimately developed the molecules that she needed. The buildup to this achievement helped her build resilience, and she realized that there are often multiple challenges that must be met while reaching a goal in scientific research. Her advisor affectionately dubbed her, "a bulldog," a testament to her tenacity.

This determination extends beyond the research lab for Manner. She is an avid open-water swimmer, and recently met the challenge of swimming 10 miles between two islands, which required two attempts. After her initial swimming attempt, she regrouped, analyzed the factors impeding her success, and enlisted familial support (childcare, flights, and a boat escort). The second swimming attempt was fueled by the reminder of her advisor's wisdom, and she was surrounded by a supportive familial network that made her success a shared endeavour. Quitting was never an option, and the lessons learned from both her research and personal experiences remained foremost. "Life isn't always that simple, and science certainly isn't. Some things can't happen because you realize it's not physically possible in a project. But there's almost always a way to pivot the project for it to succeed if you believe that succeeding is your only option left."

Maintaining Balance

For Manner, being physically active is a personally meaningful way to maintain work–life balance and emotional stability. She exercises in the morning and then takes on challenges of the day, both at work and home with her children. Manner sets 5am and after 8pm as her personal time and takes it seriously—the key was convincing herself that exercise must hold as important a role as her familial and work projects. Prioritization of exercise, for Manner, means house maintenance, reading, and social activities are sometimes secondary. Still, she feels fortunate that her husband has continually supported her scheduling needs since their children were very young.

Manner advises, "It's ok not always to do what you think will advance your career in the most linear path. You have no idea what will happen or how your decision will lead to another step forward, which is exciting. I never imagined that swimming would have given me a perspective on hazard analysis, which would have also benefited my career. And there have also been times where I've taken on a project just because I was excited about it, but realized only later that that excitement ended up moving my career forward in a way I never could have anticipated."

Photo: Virginia Manner, PhD, probing sub-shock ignition mechanisms for explosives at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL).

Reclaiming Science in 2025

Fear drives many of our decisions to act in everyday life—and scientific work in hazardous environments. Manner appreciates the R&D process in academia and when applied to research projects supporting national needs, with her 15 years of research leading to the aforementioned professional passion for explosive safety.

"I hope to make it more attainable for explosive chemists to get high-quality safety information when needed. I have also been finding ways to encourage people to analyze fear and risk in their regular lives with statistics and logical reasoning. Fear is such a powerful emotion, and we humans should always strive to control it rather than allowing it to control us and keep us from doing exciting, wonderful things with our lives and in support of science and our country."

About Dr. Virginia Manner

Dr. Virginia Manner spent her childhood in Memphis, Tennessee. After graduating high school in 1998, she moved to Chicago, Illinois for university, and earned her BS in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago (UChicago) in 2002. She went on to earn her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Washington (UW) in 2009.

Dr. Manner's postdoctoral career began as an Agnew National Security Postdoctoral Fellow in the Explosives Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in 2010, where her career flourished. Currently, at LANL, she serves as Team Leader for the Energetic Materials Synthesis Team. She led the Advanced Homemade Explosives Course at LANL across seven years, where she taught safe handling of energetics to military explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians. After focused time working on detonator systems, she and her team achieved a Distinguished Performance Award from LANL in 2020, recognizing their work leading a study on the thermal aging of explosives in detonators.

Since 2010, Dr. Manner has developed research directions in understanding novel energetic materials' safety and initiation characteristics. She has published more than 80 research papers in chemistry, kinetics, and energetics. Recently, she led development of a new, experimental and modeling effort designed to probe the sub-shock ignition mechanisms for explosives in the early design stage.

Dr. Manner is an avid swimmer, regularly swims with her family, and completed a 10-mile channel swim from Lanai to Maui. Learn more about her career journey in Science, where she recently published an essay, "How Sharks Taught Me to Handle Scary Professional Situations as a Scientist."

Follow Dr. Manner's works on Google Scholar and ResearchGate.

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