June 12, 2026
Félicie Albert, LLNL scientist and director of the Jupiter Laser Facility.
A network of laser light
This episode of Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast features Félicie Albert, director of the Jupiter Laser Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Her years of expertise span photonics, optics, physics and engineering with work involving high-intensity lasers and laser plasma interactions, and via her involvement in LaserNetUS, a network of high-power lasers in North America for researchers who otherwise don't have access to such technology.
We talked recently about a number of things, including her amazing work and LaserNetUS initiatives, and the potential impact it all has on the future.
“The Jupiter Laser Facility is a one-of-a-kind laser facility. We are part of a very large network called LaserNetUS. The goal of that network is to provide access to laser light and facilities for people who do not have access to that in their institutions,” said Albert.
LLNL’s Forensic Science Center created a novel technique to uncover traces of the Soman nerve agent. (Photo: Blaise Douros/LLNL)
Detecting chemical weapons
Scientists in the United States have developed a new capability to detect chemical weapons.
Developed by researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Forensic Science Center (FSC), the new technique can detect pinacolyl alcohol (PA), a unique marker for the nerve agent Soman in environmental samples.
Researchers also revealed that as is often the case, nerve agents such as Soman decompose in the environment, leaving low concentrations of potential markers that become difficult to detect. Even with powerful and state-of-the-art instrumentation available at the FSC, a recurring challenge for Valdez and his team is to find trace evidence of a specific marker for a chemical weapon in a sea of more abundant organic and inorganic chemicals present in the matrix.
Mike May served as the fifth director of LLNL from 1965 to 1971.
A visionary leader
Michael M. May, a renowned physicist and scientific adviser who served as the director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during a critical time in the Vietnam War era, died last month at his home in San Francisco at 100 years old.
A longtime Pleasanton resident and World War II veteran who worked at Stanford University after his retirement from Livermore, May left a lasting legacy on the lab and the United States “from advancing weapon design and supercomputing to shaping strategic policy on arms control and nonproliferation,” according to LLNL officials.
“Mike May was a rare combination: a physicist with technical brilliance, a leader with vision, and a strategist with a deep commitment to peace and stability,” current LLNL Director Kim Budil said in a statement. “He helped steer the Lab through a pivotal era and was a cornerstone in shaping today’s scientific contributions to national and international security.”
The Hayward fault runs 74 miles through the East Bay. (Image: U.S. Geological Survey)
Quake ground motion maps
A recently released study, published in the scientific journal Seismological Research Letters, states there is a 14.3 percent chance of a 6.7 magnitude or larger quake by 2034, and a 33 percent chance by 2043. Those probabilities, the study concludes, makes the Hayward fault “overdue for an earthquake,” and describes the fault as “the most dangerous in the Bay Area.”
The newly released study, authored by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Arben Pitarka, is the product of 50 computer simulations of 7-magnitude earthquakes on the Hayward fault, aimed at revealing ground motion estimates based on subsurface topography, such as sedimentary basins and micro basins.
These bowl-shaped depressions in the Earth’s crust can amplify ground motion and thus destructive force. Having more detailed maps of where ground motion would by amplified can guide seismic retrofit efforts to stabilize vulnerable buildings, or at least predict where the greatest vulnerabilities lie.
Deflecting the asteroid Bennu was the focus of a national planetary defense team.
Putting the HAMMER down
When it comes to protecting Earth from a fatal collision, there are a number of ideas currently under consideration.
NASA did manage to execute its first successful intentional asteroid deflection test rather recently: In September 2022, it deflected a small celestial body when the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft intentionally slammed into the 525-foot-wide asteroid Dimorphos, successfully changing its orbit around the larger parent body Didymos.
Meanwhile, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the HAMMER project is on the drawing board. HAMMER (Hypervelocity Asteroid Mitigation Mission for Emergency Response) is a celestial battering ram, 10 yards long and weighing almost 9 tons, that can be fired at high velocity at a small near-Earth object. With a 10-year warning period, it could deflect a 100-yard-wide object enough to prevent an impact. If something larger is speeding toward Earth, you just send out 10 or 20 HAMMERs. Or 50, or 100.
