Livermore Lab Foundation Selects LLNL Fusion Fellows for 2024

The Livermore Lab Foundation (LLF) this summer honored two Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) student interns as 2024 Fusion Fellows.

Jaya Sicard, a physics and engineering physics student at the University of Nevada, Reno, and an active U.S. Air Force member, and Chenkai Mao, a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering at Stanford University, were selected for the fellowship, which is designed to create opportunities for aspiring scientists and engineers to advance inertial fusion energy (IFE) research at LLNL’s NIF.   

The LLE established the fellowship in 2023 in direct response to LLNL achieving fusion ignition for the first time in a laboratory setting on Dec. 5, 2022, at NIF.

LLE Fusion Fellow Chenkai Mao, a fifth-year Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University, stands with his poster, “Novel Photonic Systems for Nano-3D-Printing.”

Sicard and Mao, along with other undergraduate and graduate students, were honored at LLF’s 2024 Summer Social & Student Showcase at Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore on Aug. 1.

The event drew community leaders, LLNL staff and retirees to connect and learn from the students, who presented posters on their research and described the paths that led them to pursue science. The event honored this year's LLF STEM fellowship cohort of 34 students, its largest to date.

During the summer, Sicard researched the spatial profile of laser-generated ions using nuclear activation.

“The LLF Fellowship has allowed support for me to conduct novel research in ion fast ignition and further develop my career in high energy density (HED) physics,” she said. “The fellowship has allowed me to focus on my research, networking, and preparing for graduate school applications.”

Mao worked to advance additive manufacturing of laser target components by developing a special approach to meet the stringent engineering demands of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) targets.

The Livermore Lab Foundation’s 2024 Summer Social & Student Showcase at Poppy Ridge Golf Course on Aug. 1, featured several guest speakers, including 2022 LLF Life Sciences Fellow Kyle Magro (right). Magro is pursuing a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences at UC San Diego.

“(The LLF) Fellowship has allowed me to focus on research and introduced me to the advanced manufacturing ecosystem and community,” Mao said.

He said he came to LLNL because the Advance Manufacturing Laboratory (AML) “is awesome and I love novel 3D printing technologies.”

"We are delighted to partner with NIF and IFE staff to help bring Fusion Fellows to the Lab,” said LLF Executive Director Sally Allen. “We're seeing a significant increase in the number of students interested in this field, as well as greater industry and donor support to help encourage the next generation of energy leaders. We know this is directly tied to NIF's ignition achievement and the strong research role the Lab plays throughout the ICF community. The Foundation is honored to support the Lab on this important educational and workforce development opportunity.” 

Jacob Crouch, a Ph.D. student in the School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, was the LLF’s first Fusion Fellow in 2023.

Crouch worked with the NIF and Photon Science (NIF&PS) Directorate on “A Survey of Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) Power Plant Studies.”

Established in 2016, the Livermore Lab Foundation serves as an independent key philanthropic partner with LLNL, providing mechanisms for public and private investments, grants and philanthropic gifts that support research, innovation, workforce and STEM education initiatives at LLNL. To learn more, visit www.livermorelabfoundation.org.

Follow us on X: @lasers_llnl