Lab researchers address AAAS science conference

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will be well represented at this week’s annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

This year’s conference, whose theme is Science and Technology from a Global Perspective, takes place Feb. 14-18 in Boston.

LLNL’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) will take center stage on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 8:30 a.m. Edward Moses, Principal Associate Director for NIF and Photon Science, along with Chief Scientist for NIF John Lindl will participate in a symposium entitled “High-Powered Lasers: Fusion Ignition and Concomitant Scientific Opportunities.”

In the half century since lasers were invented, their output has grown from millijoules to megajoules and from milliwatts to petawatts. Leading this evolution is the National Ignition Facility, along with other next-generation laser systems currently under construction or design in Europe and Japan. NIF is expected to achieve fusion ignition, producing temperatures and densities approaching those at the core of the sun, along with brief neutron densities that are far beyond those of any other terrestrial source. This effort may have an obvious effect on the global energy situation.

Moses’ will present “National Ignition Facility: Ushering in a New Era for Experimental Science.” Lindl will speak about “Basics of Inertial Confinement Fusion.”

The symposium was organized by LLNL’s Richard Boyd and Karl van Bibber.

Moses and Lindl will be available for media interviews following the session.

On Saturday afternoon, Feb. 16, David K. Smith, a senior nuclear forensics adviser at LLNL, will speak at a symposium entitled “Atomic Detectives: Nuclear Forensics and Combating Illicit Trafficking.” Smith’s presentation will focus on “Tools to Detect Undeclared Nuclear Activities.”

Cherry Murray, LLNL’s Principal Associate Director for Science and Technology, was an organizer of a session entitled “50 Years of the Space Age: Looking Back, Looking Forward.” The session is scheduled Friday, Feb. 15 at 8:30 a.m.

Speakers include former astronaut Kathy Sullivan, the first of only seven American women to walk in space; Roald Sagdeev, author of  “The Making of a Soviet Scientist: My Adventures in Nuclear Fusion and Space from Stalin to Star Wars”; and Gilberto Câmara, director of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research.

LLNL's Chief Scientist Karl van Bibber will take part in a session “The Global Dimension of Research Infrastructures” on Monday, Feb. 18, which includes representatives from several European research facilities.

Michael May, former LLNL Lab Director (1965-71), will report on the “Results of a Joint Study of Nuclear Forensics” at a symposium entitled “Nuclear Forensics and Global Nuclear Deterrence.” The symposium takes place Saturday, Feb. 16, at 3:30 p.m.

AAAS is an international non-profit organization, dedicated to advancing science around the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association. In addition to organizing membership activities, AAAS publishes the peer-reviewed journal Science, which has an estimated total readership of one million.

Founded in 1952, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is a national security laboratory, with a mission to ensure national security and apply science and technology to the important issues of our time. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.