NIF’s Jamie King Receives Laser Safety Award

April 10, 2019

The Laser Institute of America (LIA) has recognized Jamie King, certified laser safety officer (CLSO) for  NIF and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with the R. James Rockwell, Jr. Educational Achievement Award.

Jamie King holds the R. James Rockwell, Jr. Educational Achievement Award (left) and the BLS Illumination Award (right). Credit: Laser Institute of America

The award honors outstanding contributions in laser safety education through efforts such as training and education courses, publications, software development, significant involvement in safety-related conferences, educational website development, and more. King received the award, presented biennially since 2005, at the recent International Laser Safety Conference in Kissimmee, Florida.

“I am humbled and honored to be mentioned in the same breath as the past recipients, whom I have long respected as enormous leaders in laser safety,” King said. “If not for the fortunate opportunities presented at perfect times throughout my career and the world class organizations I have been a part of, I am not sure that I could say I would be at this point today.”

King is a CLSO with more than 25 years of experience in laser safety. After serving as laser safety officer (LSO) at the NASA Ames Research Center and Sandia National Laboratories-California, he joined LLNL as LSO for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) & Photon Science Directorate, where he expanded a laser safety newsletter that now boasts a worldwide distribution with more than 2,500 readers. In 2011, King became the institutional LSO for LLNL.

King currently serves as the chair of the Department of Energy (DOE) Facilities Contract Organization Group’s Laser Safety Task Group and has served on every technical planning committee for DOE’s LSO workshops since 2012.

He also has served as Technical Practical Applications Seminars co-chair of the ILSC in 2017 and 2019, coordinating topics and speakers to deliver high-quality laser safety information and encouraging the next generation of laser safety professionals.

During this year’s applications seminars, King delivered a talk, “Beyond Class 4, Controls for Very High Power Lasers,” and organized additional LLNL presenters — Aaron Potash (“Human Performance Improvement, a Beneficial Way to Investigate your Laser Incidents”) and Wes Chase (“Non-Beam to the Extreme”). 

During the conference, King also accepted the BLS Illumination Award on behalf of LLNL. The award recognizes an institution, company, or organization that directly employs a CLSO and has provided encouragement and support for employee participation within the laser safety community and/or has made outstanding contributions to the field of laser safety.

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