LLNL design physicist and team lead Annie Kritcher receives her Liberty Science Center “Genius Award” from Paul Hoffman, the science education center’s president and CEO. Photos by the Liberty Science Center.
(Download Image)LLNL’s Annie Kritcher Honored with Liberty Science Center’s ‘Genius Award’
The Liberty Science Center of New Jersey recently presented LLNL physicist Annie Kritcher with its “Genius Award” for her work on the Lab team that achieved fusion ignition for the first time in a laboratory setting at NIF in 2022.
Kritcher, who leads the integrated modeling team within LLNL’s inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program, was one of three scientists who were celebrated because their “leadership, vision, and research has inspired world-changing innovations.” The awards were presented during a May 20 red-carpet gala that also feted actor and science-fiction icon William Shatner of Star Trek fame.
Kritcher said she was grateful to receive the science education center’s highest honor on behalf of LLNL’s fusion ignition team.
“I’m so honored to receive this award and represent our ignition team,” she said. “I’m impressed with the mission and what the science center does for the community to promote STEM and provide access to underprivileged communities.”
Kritcher oversees the integrated modeling of indirect-drive fusion designs fielded at NIF. She was the lead designer for the historic experiment at NIF on Dec. 5, 2022, when fusion ignition was achieved for the first time in a laboratory setting. She is part of a large multidisciplinary team that has since achieved ignition four more times.
The achievement helps NIF meet its primary mission to help ensure the reliability and safety of the nation’s nuclear deterrent. In addition, ignition also helps LLNL further understand what’s needed to develop inertial fusion energy as a safe, clean, and virtually unlimited source of energy.
At the gala, Kritcher was introduced by center trustee Ralph Izzo and his wife, Karen Izzo.
“Dr. Kritcher is the engineering design lead on the experiment that, in December 2022, achieved the holy grail of nuclear physics: igniting the world’s first controlled nuclear fusion reaction to release more energy than it consumed,” Ralph Izzo said.
Kritcher described to the audience what she felt when ignition was achieved.
“You know when you get those waves of emotion that take over your whole body?” she said. “That was one of those scenarios for me.”
The center, located near the Statue of Liberty, also honored Dr. Nicholas Schiff of Weill Cornell Medical Center, for innovation in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries, and evolutionary biologist Joseph Graves Jr. of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, for pioneering work in the genetics of aging and using metals and nanomaterials to defeat harmful bacteria.
Kritcher started at LLNL as a summer intern in 2004, then competed her thesis work through the Lab until 2009. She became a Lawrence postdoc fellow in 2009 before transitioning to become a member of the Lab’s technical staff in 2012.
In 2023, the news magazine Time named Kritcher to its annual TIME100 list of the most influential people in the world, while the science journal Nature named her as one of the year’s 10 people who helped shape science.
The Liberty Science Center also posted this video interview with Kritcher:
“LSC honors new group of thinkers and doers in science and tech at 12th Annual Genius Gala,” Liberty Science Center News, May 21, 2024
“Annie Kritcher: Tackling the Biggest Challenges,” NIF & Photon Science News, March 12, 2024
“LLNL’s Breakthrough Ignition Experiment Highlighted in Physical Review Letters,” NIF & Photon Science News, February 5, 2024
“The Age of Ignition: A NIF & Photon Science News Special Report”
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