Tammy Ma

Tammy Ma

Lead for the Inertial Fusion Energy Institutional Initiative

Tammy Ma leads the Laboratory’s Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) Institutional Initiative, which is enabling the U.S. national, technical, and community leadership needed to build the foundational science and technology for IFE and support the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE’s) vision for accelerating the commercialization of fusion energy, informed by LLNL’s repeated achievement of fusion ignition at the National Ignition Facility.

Ma joined LLNL in 2010. In previous roles, Ma led many inertial confinement fusion experiments on NIF, developed new x-ray diagnostics and analysis, and chaired the Lab-Wide Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program funding highly innovative research.

Ma currently serves as a member of the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, advising the DOE Office of Science on complex scientific and technological issues related to fusion energy and plasma research. In 2022, Ma chaired the Inertial Fusion Energy Basic Research Needs Workshop on behalf of DOE.

She is the recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Research from the American Physical Society, and a DOE Early Career Research Award. Ma earned her B.S. from Caltech and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego.