James (Jim) Dunn

James (Jim) Dunn of Livermore died March 31. He was 54.

Dunn was born in Glasgow, Scotland in July 1959, and grew up in East Kilbride. He earned a bachelor's degree in natural philosophy from Glasgow University, a master's in experimental space physics and a doctorate in high resolution X-ray spectroscopy of laboratory sources -- both from Leicester University.

Dunn spent two years as a post-doctoral researcher at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. He moved to Livermore in 1992, where he was employed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He led a series of experiments on tabletop X-ray lasers starting in 1997. His notable research achievements included the first picosecond X-ray laser interferometry of laser plasmas and the demonstration of a 10 Hz sub-20nm X-ray laser, for which he was selected a fellow of the Optical Society of America in 2007. Dunn contributed to many laser-plasma experiments at LLNL and he recently led the effort to build a new X-ray spectrometer that is currently being fielded on experiments at the ORION laser at AWE in the United Kingdom.

Dunn was a hi-fi enthusiast -- putting together systems and building loudspeakers (and many iterations of loudspeaker stands). A film buff, music lover, car enthusiast and gardener -- Dunn loved life.

He will be missed by his many great friends and colleagues; by his brother, David; his mother, Rose; and his wife of 23 years, Joy.

Many of Dunn's friends and colleagues attended his celebration of life at Poppy Ridge on April 4. Donations in his memory may be made to his favorite charity: Family Emergency Shelter Coalition—FESCO (in the comments box please note in memory of James Dunn) or mail to: FESCO, 21455 Birch Street, No. 5, Hayward, Calif. 94541