LLNL honors 23 as Distinguished Members of Technical Staff

Twenty-three LLNL researchers have been named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff (DMTS) for their extraordinary scientific and technical contributions, as acknowledged by their professional peers and the broader scientific community. As distinguished citizens of the Laboratory and their scientific areas of specialization, DMTS honorees have a sustained history of exceptional achievements and service-minded leadership as role models and mentors in their field. The LDRD program has provided support for 20 of the 23 awardees.

DMTS is the highest technical staff level achievable by a scientist or engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and is a prestigious recognition on the personnel ladder. Appointment to DMTS is reserved for Laboratory scientists and engineers who have demonstrated at least one of the following:

• A sustained history of high-level achievements in programs of importance to the Laboratory.
• A sustained history of distinguished scientific and technical achievements, having become a recognized authority in the field.
• A fundamental and important discovery that has had sustained, widespread impact.

We congratulate all 23 honorees on their noteworthy technical achievements and their continued service to the Laboratory and the scientific community.

Saeed Assadi
Saeed Assadi has made major contributions to the Reversed Field Pinch plasma experiment, accelerator diagnostics, and to the success of compact source experiments since joining LLNL in 2018. He serves as chief scientist (National Security Engineering Division) and Solid-State Pulsed Power (SSPP) Work Breakdown Structure Technical Lead for Advanced Sources and Detectors, overseeing 47% of $1.8B hardware deliverables. “I am honored to join the ranks of LLNL’s distinguished scientists and to be recognized as a contributor to the Lab's tradition of sustained excellence. This honor reflects the outstanding scientists, engineers and staff I have had the privilege to work with during my tenure at LLNL,” said Assadi.

Nathan Barton    
Nathan Barton is the program group leader for condensed matter physics in the Weapon Physics and Design Program. Barton’s fields of interest center around computational mechanics of materials; with emphasis on multi-scale methods, crystal plasticity, multi-phase materials and phase transformations, dynamic behavior, large-scale computing and connections to diffraction-based experiments. “A marvel of the Lab community is that I have felt at home technically while being able to interact with colleagues from a range of disciplines. I am honored to be recognized in this way and it is a privilege to have been a member of diverse teams contributing to LLNL's mission,” noted Barton.

Vasily Bulatov
Vasily Bulatov is a leader in achieving some of the largest-scale molecular dynamics simulations ever accomplished, including innovative analysis methodologies to enable them. His research focuses on the physics and mechanics of materials strength and degradation, microstructure and its effects on materials properties, crystal dislocations, efficient mathematical algorithms for computer simulations of complex processes, high-performance computing, uncertainty quantification and data sciences in engineering. “Being named a DMTS is a great honor for me personally, but also a recognition of the work of our research team. Having worked at LLNL for over 25 years, I have developed a great respect for the Laboratory’s past as well as great expectations for its future. So much interesting and challenging work is still ahead of us,” said Bulatov.

Peter Celliers    
Peter Celliers’ work at LLNL combines shock compression, high-energy-density (HED) physics and optical instrumentation in a variety of fields including x-ray interferometer systems and optical instrumentation for HED sciences. He developed advanced implementations of imaging velocimeters with applications in drive tuning for the inertial confinement fusion program and measuring properties of materials at high dynamic pressures. “It's a great honor to be recognized as a DMTS and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with many talented scientists and engineers during my career at LLNL. I owe much to these colleagues and to the availability of the tremendous experimental facilities at LLNL as well as the OMEGA facility at the University of Rochester,” noted Celliers.

Barry Chen
Barry Chen is a machine learning researcher with over 19 years of experience in developing and applying novel machine learning algorithms to a wide variety of projects and applications at LLNL, predominantly in the Global Security Directorate. With expertise in neural networks, random forests and probabilistic graphical models, Chen has helped advance artificial intelligence to enhance threat detection, prediction and analysis capabilities. “I’m tremendously honored for this recognition and am even more grateful for the many smart and dedicated colleagues who have made the accomplishments recognized by this honor possible and continue to make the Lab such an interesting and fulfilling place to work,” said Chen.

Greg DiPeso
Gregory DiPeso is a senior intelligence analyst in the International Assessments Program and is responsible for nuclear weapons analysis across multiple portfolios, spanning peer adversaries to non-state actors. DiPeso engages with colleagues and partners from multiple Laboratory directorates, other Department of Energy laboratories, and U.S. government agencies to provide collaborative assessments that address a variety of national security threats. “It is my great honor to be named DMTS. It has been an even greater privilege to work with many talented people, both mentors and colleagues, over the years. Finally, I wish to thank LLNL for providing the unique opportunity to work on a wide-ranging set of challenges throughout my career,” observed DiPeso.

Mike Goldman
Michael Goldman was the founder and first director of LLNL’s Data Science Institute from 2018–2023; he established the institute’s strong, forward-leaning vision and consistent funding stream. Goldman consistently leverages his passion for workforce development to establish new workforce pipelines through university partnerships, build mentoring and upskilling programs for existing staff, and create opportunities to strengthen LLNL’s data-science community. “I am incredibly humbled and consider myself privileged to be surrounded not only by the other DMTS (congratulations!), but also the wonderful people I have had the privilege of working with over the years that made this distinction possible,” said Goldman.

David Heinrichs
After working in commercial nuclear power as a reactor physicist post-graduation, David Heinrichs joined LLNL as a criticality safety engineer in 1991 and has been the division leader responsible for the LLNL Criticality Safety Program since 2006. Heinrichs’ research interests include criticality safety, reactor physics, radiation shielding and dosimetry, particle transport and its underlying nuclear data. “I am delighted and honored to receive the DMTS as it recognizes the excellence of the LLNL Criticality Safety Program to which I have dedicated the majority of my career and been entrusted with leading. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the many colleagues I’ve had the privilege to work with building and maintaining our program, especially our talented and dedicated criticality safety engineers, fissile material handlers, Responsible Individuals, and program, facility and institutional management and staff,” said Heinrichs.

Richard Hornung
Rich Hornung is a computational scientist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing at LLNL. Since joining the Laboratory in 1996, Hornung has performed algorithm research and software development for a wide range of problems in high-performance computing (HPC). His research interests include scalable parallel adaptive-mesh refinement, MPMD algorithms for multi-scale simulations, programming abstractions for high-performance multi-architecture portability, and software infrastructure for large-scale multi-physics applications. “I am honored to be selected as a DMTS. Throughout my career at LLNL, I’ve been fortunate to have had opportunities to pursue challenging problems and work with and learn from many really smart, highly motivated people. My recognition would not be possible without these collaborations,” said Hornung.

Crystal Jaing
Holding a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology, Crystal Jaing serves as group leader of genomics in the Physical & Life Sciences Directorate at LLNL. Her research areas include pathogen genomics, biosurveillance, microbiome, biomarker discovery and predictive biology. Jaing has led multiple government-funded programs advancing pathogen detection technologies and better understanding of pathogen impacts to human health. “I am honored to be selected as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff. I am deeply grateful for all the support and opportunities LLNL has provided over the years. It has been a privilege to work alongside exceptional bioscientists and engineers to develop innovative solutions to advance biosecurity and public health,” said Jaing.

Stephan MacLaren
Steve MacLaren, a physicist in LLNL's Strategic Deterrence directorate, leads the Laboratory Directed Research & Development Strategic Initiative for Inertial Fusion Energy target technologies and serves as the lead designer for the pushered single-shell metal capsule implosion platform. Throughout his career, MacLaren has pursued testing high-energy-density physics models; resulting experiments have delivered key validation data for models of radiation transport, hydrodynamics and instabilities, and thermonuclear burn important for stockpile stewardship. “At LLNL, to be included in the DMTS category is quite an honor. It is incredibly humbling, particularly as I have had the good fortune to consider many in this group mentors over the course of my career, and still do today,” noted MacLaren.

Kathryn Mohror
Kathryn Mohror is a computer scientist in the Parallel Systems Group in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) while also serving as the deputy director for the Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) program and the Advanced Scientific Computing Research point of contact for computer science at LLNL. Her research on high-end computing systems is focused on input/output (I/O) performance and portability; other research interests include scalable performance analysis and tuning, fault tolerance and parallel programming paradigms. “I feel humbled and honored to receive this recognition. Over my time at LLNL, I have learned that the best science outcomes come from teamwork. I am privileged to have worked with exceptional people here at LLNL and out in the wider community, and none of my achievements would have been possible without their contributions,” said Mohror.

Stephen Myers
Stephen Myers has 27 years of experience at LLNL as a research seismologist and program leader. Myers regularly supports the U.S. as a delegate to Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization meetings, and in 2022 he began serving as Working Group B Task Leader for Technology Refreshment. He frequently instructs scientists in the international and domestic communities on topics of seismology and explosion monitoring. “I greatly appreciate the recognition of being named a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and the spotlight it puts on nuclear nonproliferation efforts at LLNL,” noted Myers.

John Nasstrom
John Nasstrom serves as chief scientist for LLNL’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team with 40 years’ experience and expertise in atmospheric dispersion modeling. He has supported every major National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC) emergency response since 1984, including the Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2011) nuclear power plant accidents, and helped provide key information to make important government decisions. “I am very honored to be named a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, and am extremely thankful for being able to work in our extraordinary laboratory with amazing colleagues who made my work possible,” said Nasstrom.

Lisa Poyneer
Lisa Poyneer is an internationally recognized expert in adaptive optics (AO). In her 22-year career at the Laboratory, she has applied AO technology to projects in lasers, microscopy, space security and x-ray optics. Poyneer has developed multiple new AO technologies, most notably wavefront reconstruction with Fourier transforms and the spatially-filtered wavefront sensor. "This is a tremendous individual honor, but Adaptive Optics is inherently multi-disciplinary. I have really valued working at the Laboratory on creative teams where scientists and engineers come together to address both fundamental scientific questions and important programmatic challenges,” observed Poyneer.

Craig Siders    
As senior scientist in the National Ignition Facility & Photon Science Directorate, and the LLNL team captain for the Missile Defense Agency, Craig Siders develops practical solutions to address pressing needs of the Department of Defense and intelligence communities. His work focuses on the application of directed-energy technologies in missile defense, base/force protection, communications and remote sensing. “Being promoted to Distinguished Member of Technical Staff is an incredible honor that holds profound meaning for me. It stands as a testament to the unwavering support and collaboration of my colleagues and mentors throughout my career. This designation recognizes the collective dedication and hard work of the many teams I have been privileged to be a part of and reinforces my belief that if nobody can do it, we can,” noted Siders.

Vladimir Smalyuk
Vladimir Smalyuk is a physicist at LLNL, a position he has held since 2009. Smalyuk’s signature accomplishments are developments of numerous experimental platforms and techniques to study hydrodynamic instabilities in all stages of spherical implosions in inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density plasmas; from linear to highly-nonlinear, turbulent, to atomic-mixing regimes of instabilities; in planar, cylindrical and spherical geometries; for all major types of instabilities including Rayleigh-Taylor, Richtmyer-Meshkov, Kelvin-Helmholtz, and Landau-Darrius instabilities. “I am honored by the DMTS selection and feel privileged working on dynamic teams with many world experts in various fields of science at LLNL,” said Smalyuk.

Jennifer Swenson    
At local and national levels, Jennifer L. Swenson drives collaboration across multiple Laboratory directorates and U.S. government agencies, continuing a distinguished Z Program tradition of providing credible and timely analytic support on priority national security matters to a diverse consumer base. “It’s an honor to be recognized for contributions to the Lab’s U.S. national security mission. This selection is a testament to the dedication to service of the people with whom I am privileged to work — colleagues who mentor, challenge, lead by example, encourage collaboration and make my job fun. I aspire to inspire those around me in the same way. I look forward to what comes next in this remarkable journey at LLNL,” noted Swenson.

Lars Voss    
Lars Voss is a materials scientist with extensive experience in semiconductor materials and devices for national security missions. He has worked from materials discovery through field testing of components and systems in the areas of radiation detection, energy harvesting, power electronics, pulsed power, radiofrequency and optoelectronics. “Being made DMTS is not something I ever expected, so it was a shock to be notified. Like others, I feel this is owed to the people I have been lucky enough to work with. I also feel extremely fortunate to have had a string of exceptional mentors from graduate school through to the present day, and hope that I can pay that forward,” said Voss.

Jean-Paul Watson    
Jean-Paul (JP) Watson joined LLNL as a senior research scientist in 2020, after more than 15 years at Sandia National Laboratories. His main research interests involve optimization under uncertainty and applications to critical infrastructure operations, planning and resilience. “Given that it’s hard to walk far across the LLNL campus without running into a world-class researcher, I am truly humbled to be joining the ranks of DMTS staff at LLNL. Most importantly, I owe this recognition (and everything else) to my collaborators at LLNL, throughout the national lab system, and academia,” noted Watson.

Peter Weber
Peter Weber’s research at LLNL focuses on microbial ecology and forensic signatures in biological and nuclear materials. His expertise is in biogeochemistry and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), and he has led the NanoSIMS facility at LLNL for over a decade. “I am deeply touched and thankful for this honor. I want to thank LLNL for the many opportunities to pursue science, and I want to acknowledge my mentor, Ian Hutcheon, and the many colleagues that I have enjoyed working with and learning from over the years,” said Weber.

Tom Wilson
Tom Wilson is internationally recognized for his work in polymer rheology and shape memory polymers. He has served as the leading polymer formulation, chemistry, processing and analysis subject-matter expert for over 20 years at LLNL, offering expertise on polymer science activities within the Strategic Deterrence directorate. “It’s very hard to put into words how much receiving DMTS status means to me — I am thrilled with the DMTS designation, as it affirms I’ve had a positive impact on the Lab and the country,” said Wilson.

Frank Wong
As an internationally recognized expert in technical, policy, and diplomatic elements of nuclear security, Frank Wong led the development and implementation of nuclear counterterrorism and nuclear security policies at national and international levels. “It is a great honor and a privilege to be recognized as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, and I am also humbled to be included in a group of esteemed scientists. During my career at the Lab, I have been extremely fortunate to have mentors and colleagues who have inspired and pointed me in new and challenging directions, sometimes, allowing me to dive into topics I had never considered. I strive to do the same with the next generation,” said Wong.

—Stephanie Turza