News

NIF&PS Summer Scholar Program Celebrates a Record Year

The NIF&PS Summer Scholar Program had a record year in 2023—and the program’s director says it’s directly related to LLNL’s fusion ignition milestone last Dec. 5.

NIF&PS Summer Scholar Wants to Be an Inspiration to Other Students

When Ashleigh Wilson was growing up, she thought she would become an accountant. Fast forward to the present—and the Norfolk State University Ph.D. candidate has just wrapped up her second year as a NIF&PS Summer Scholar Program intern at LLNL.

LLNL Corones Award Winners Celebrated

LLNL physicist Tammy Ma and computational scientist Jeff Hittinger were recently celebrated as winners of the Krell Institute’s James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building, and Communication at an event attended by their LLNL colleagues and family members.

Daniel Casey Receives DOE Early Career Research Program Award

NIF & Photon Science physicist Daniel Casey, who has made important contributions to LLNL’s success in achieving ignition on NIF, has received the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Early Career Research Program award for his work in fusion energy sciences.

Two LLNL Scientists Named Optica Senior Members

LLNL scientists David Gibson and Paul Pax have been named senior members of Optica (formerly OSA). Senior membership status recognizes members with more than 10 years of professional experience in optics or an optics-related field.

A Passion for Physics Drives NIF Summer Intern Danny Attiyah

This summer, Danny Attiyah, a third-year Ph.D. student at the University of California, Irvine, will develop theory, create simulations, and put those simulations to the test in a long experimental run.

Meet the People Behind the Scenes of LLNL’s Historic Ignition Shot

Part 12 of “The Age of Ignition,” a NIF & Photon Science News Special Report describing the elements of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s fusion breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility

Laser Fusion Pioneer Lindl Celebrates Five Decades at LLNL

NIF Senior Scientist John Lindl, who was instrumental in launching LLNL’s successful effort to achieve fusion ignition, has been recognized for his five decades of service at the Laboratory.

From “60 Minutes” to “SNL,” Fusion Ignition News Thrusts LLNL into the Zeitgeist

Part 11 of “The Age of Ignition,” a NIF & Photon Science News Special Report describing the elements of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s fusion breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility

Summer Intern Learns at Intersection of Chemistry and Optical Fiber

Mary Ann Cahoon’s journey to an internship with the NIF & Photon Science Directorate at LLNL began at the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York.

Summer Intern Learns at Intersection of Chemistry and Optical Fiber

Mary Ann Cahoon’s journey to an internship with the NIF & Photon Science Directorate at LLNL began at the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York.

For Tammy Ma, Paying It Forward Has Paid Career Dividends

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) physicist Tammy Ma says she learned a valuable lesson in 2001 when she was a summer intern at the Laboratory.

Justin Galbraith—Finding Balance

Mechanical engineer Justin Galbraith likens himself to a Siberian Husky that gets into trouble without enough exercise.

CASC Newsletter | Vol 13 | July 2023

LLNL’s Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC)—“siblings of a sort” with NIF—has made many contributions to making controlled laboratory fusion ignition possible.

Defense Programs Awards of Excellence recognize innovation and achievements in 2021

The NNSA honored a team of LLNL multidisciplinary experts for the Aug. 8, 2021 experiment at NIF that exceeded Lawson’s criterion for nuclear fusion.

New NIF Experimental Platform Will Probe Warm Dense Matter

Warm dense matter (WDM) is present in the interior of planets and some stars and is also produced in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. A new NIF platform will provide unique, high-quality experimental data to guide the complex models required to simulate the properties of WDM.

Advanced Masking Technology Enables New Applications for Metasurface Optics

Optics researchers at LLNL have refined their novel metasurface process to create taller features without increasing feature-to-feature spacing, an advance that unlocks exciting new design possibilities for NIF and other advanced laser systems. 

How AI Predicted Fusion Ignition Before It Happened

At 1:03 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2022, 192 laser beams at the National Ignition Facility focused 2.05 megajoules of energy onto a peppercorn-sized capsule of frozen hydrogen fuel. In this talk, Humbird and Peterson discussed the breakthrough experiment, nuclear fusion, and how we used machine learning to call the shot heard around the world.

High Performance Computing, AI, and Cognitive Simulation Helped LLNL Conquer Fusion Ignition

Part 10 of “The Age of Ignition,” a NIF & Photon Science News Special Report describing the elements of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s fusion breakthrough at the National Ignition Facility

Telly Awards Honor Two LLNL Videos

The 44th Annual Telly Awards honored LLNL with five awards for two videos that helped announce the Lab’s fusion ignition achievement and visualize how experiments happen at NIF.