and Quantum Optics Scientist
Audrey Eshun studies quantum optics, including ways to use quantum light to capture 3D images of sensitive biological samples, without damaging the sample. She’s excited to be part of LLNL’s quantum science initiatives and work in an emerging research area.
Audrey joined LLNL as a postdoctoral researcher after earning her degree in physical chemistry at the University of Michigan, and she converted to a staff scientist in 2024. In addition to building a quantum light source capable of taking 3D images, she and her team plan to enhance the tool so it can be used to study plant-microbiome interactions.
She works on another type of microscope, a lattice light sheet, which will enable researchers to view cells interacting with pathogens — helping them understand how viruses infect cells.
Her research extends beyond bioscience applications. She leverages her expertise in laser spectroscopy to study laser–material interaction, which supports LLNL’s fusion energy research.
Audrey grew up in Ghana and moved to the United States to start her undergraduate work. During college, she wanted to pursue energy research, and she’s happy that her work at LLNL involves both fusion energy and bioenergy applications.
Audrey also serves on the leadership team for one of LLNL’s employee resource groups, the African American Body of Laboratory Employees (ABLE) group, where she helps plan and promote events and participates in outreach activities with LLNL summer students, as well as local high school students. She hopes to inspire students to attend college, explore careers in science and maybe even pursue a career in quantum science.
For Jeremy Feaster, pursuing a career in science and research is all about making an impact on society. Jeremy’s tenth grade chemistry teacher helped him learn how chemistry can be used to benefit others. Throughout his education and career, Jeremy has been inspired by the goal of leaving the world in a better place.
Now an electrochemical engineer in LLNL’s Materials Science Division, Jeremy loves the Laboratory’s collaborative environment and opportunities to grow professionally and personally. He is particularly proud of his work toward creating the first 3D-printed vapor-fed reactors for electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion, now a full-scope effort that has opened new arenas in electrochemistry and chemical engineering. Jeremy also leads a Disruptive Research project, funded by LLNL’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program. The multi-year project focuses on converting air into sustainable fertilizer.
Jeremy plays an active role in the Laboratory’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, serving as the co-chair for the African-American Body of Laboratory Employees (ABLE) employee resource group. He received a 2020 Director’s Diversity & Inclusion Award for mentoring Livermore High School students on topics such as discrimination, unconscious bias and navigating less-diverse environments.
He also leads the Jeremy T. Feaster Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to amplify a culture of “lift as you climb” in the community. Over the past 11 years, the Feaster Foundation has awarded over $20,000 in scholarships to Black and underrepresented students around the nation, as well as mentored driven students who want to start their own organizations to benefit their communities.
Jeremy received his Ph.D. and M.S. in chemical engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2023, he received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers 35 Under 35 Award.
Elaine Lee is the group leader of the Responsive and Active Materials and Manufacturing Group and a member of the Center for Engineered Materials and Manufacturing in Engineering’s Materials Engineering Division. As a principal investigator, she provides solutions to multidisciplinary collaborative projects for the development of materials and methods to meet national security needs. Her research interests include stimuli-responsive materials, additive manufacturing processes, flexible optoelectronic technologies, electrophoretic deposition, microencapsulation, colloidal processing, micro- and nanofabrication and materials characterization. Elaine’s current projects span the Engineering, Physical and Life Sciences and Global Security directorates and include the development of controlled release of microencapsulants, engineered materials for flexible optoelectronic technologies and additive manufacturing of shape-changing materials. She will be co-leading a strategic initiative for enabling sentient materials.
Elaine earned her S.B. in materials science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and M.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a co-author on numerous high-impact publications and patents. Passionate about recruiting and mentoring, Elaine has received recognition for excellence in leadership, publishing and sponsor engagement.
Lara Leininger is the director of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Energetic Materials Center (EMC). The EMC is the central hub of LLNL’s energetics materials subject matter experts (SMEs) that integrates across programs and disciplines, and it is LLNL’s outreach to academia and industry. The EMC mission is to integrate state-of-the-art capabilities in high explosives, propellants, thermites and pyrotechnics for the benefit of the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) science-based Nuclear Stockpile Stewardship Program, the Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Homeland Security, U.S. government agencies and U.S. industry. LLNL conducts over 600 experiments annually at the High Explosives Applications Facility (HEAF) in Livermore, CA, and the Site 300 Experimental Site in Tracy, CA.
Lara joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1997 and has held various roles throughout her career as a team member, subject matter expert and program manager supporting Strategic Deterrence, Global Security and Physical and Life Sciences. Her primary research interests are in failure modeling and assessment of structures and mechanical components under blast loading and reaction-zone physics in the detonations of high explosives. She has a broad customer base of NNSA, DOD and other government national security agencies.
From 2008–2010 Lara served as a managing engineer at Hinman Consulting Engineers, a firm that specialized in anti-terrorism/force protection structural engineering consulting for a range of customers. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and B.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
When she’s not in the lab, she combines her love of running with an overactive wanderlust, running marathons around the country in places she has not been to or had the time to explore. Since the country reopened after the COVID-19 pandemic her runs have included: Hartford, Baltimore, Columbus and Anchorage.
Jackie Meeker is the associate program director for nuclear materials in the Weapons Technologies and Engineering Division within the Strategic Deterrence Directorate. She leads the programmatic mission execution within LLNL’s Superblock, one of two defense plutonium research and development facilities in the Nuclear Security Enterprise to enable testing of weapon components in current stockpile, investigating technologies for manufacturing of plutonium parts, executing experiments on plutonium alloys and supporting fabrication of subcritical experiments. She is also responsible for transforming and modernizing capabilities to ensure long term health and vitality of nuclear operations for LLNL.
Jackie has over 25 years of experience in nuclear engineering and operations. Her past roles include associate program leader in tritium operations, associate program leader in nuclear materials engineering, National Ignition Facility target area operations and inertial confinement fusion project engineer. Jackie has also served in the U.S Navy as a surface warfare officer (nuclear). She holds an M.S. in physics from California State University, Long Beach and an M.A. in engineering management from Old Dominion University.
Outside of the Lab, when Jackie is not enjoying the picturesque trails of the great outdoors with her family, she enjoys the art and science of transforming innocuous little green coffee beans into marvelous roasted coffee.
Simon Pang is a deputy group leader for the Materials for Energy and Climate Security group in the Materials Science Division. He also leads the Direct Air Capture Pillar of LLNL’s Carbon Initiative. His research interests include development and deployment of materials and technologies for carbon dioxide removal, the interface between carbon capture and carbon conversion technologies and systems analysis for carbon removal and energy technologies.
Simon leads DOE-funded research projects spanning topics from that explore understanding the fundamental chemical and physical interactions of direct air capture materials with their environment, toand development of hybrid reactive capture processes that integrate carbon capture and conversion. He is an author of LLNL’s landmark report, Getting to Neutral, which identified potential pathways for California to achieve net-zero emissions. Simon is also an author of LLNL’s Roads to Removal report, which provides a first-of-a-kind national geospatial assessment of the options that can enable the United States to achieve net-zero emissions.
Simon received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and a B.S. in chemical engineering from Cornell University. He is a recipient of LLNL’s ninth annual early and mid-career award, for which he credits his team of incredible students, postdocs and staff.
Energetic Materials
Energetic materials, particularly high explosives, play an integral role in the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and LLNL expertise in this arena also informs counterterrorism assessments. Our researchers pair high-fidelity modeling and simulation with hands-on formulation, synthesis and experimentation to propel scientific advances in energetic materials. Our researchers are also driving advances in high explosive manufacturing technologies, including additive manufacturing and continuous synthesis.
3D Printed Materials Respond to External Stimuli
Leveraging the power of 3D printing, we create materials whose properties are not fixed after fabrication, but instead react to environmental stimuli in real time. For example, changes in temperature, chemical environment or variations in electromagnetic fields may cause a structure to bend or swell as it avoids breakage or absorbs a liquid. Most recently, LLNL researchers have developed a liquid crystal elastomer — a soft material that morphs in response to light, which has implications for future soft robotics that can do work where rigid materials cannot.
Preventing Material Corrosion
We explore ways to stop material degradation before it starts — research that’s critical to ensuring the long-term performance of our nation’s nuclear stockpile and the resilience of our energy infrastructure. It’s also relevant to commercial applications, including aircraft and advanced batteries. Our materials science experts leverage LLNL’s supercomputers and machine learning tools to better predict factors that initiate corrosion, especially for new types of additively manufactured material. They integrate experimental data into their simulations to capture complex corrosion processes and better understand how a material will perform at scale, in relevant conditions, over its service lifetime.
AML
Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory
The Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory facilitates partnerships between LLNL, industry and academia to address manufacturing challenges across a range of commercial and government projects.
CAMS
Center for Mass Spectrometry
CAMS researchers use diverse analytical techniques and state-of-the-art instrumentation to develop and apply ultra-sensitive isotope ratio measurements and ion beam analytical techniques.
CDO
Center for Design and Optimization
CDO optimizes complex systems governed by the nonlinear, dynamic, multiphysics or multiresolution phenomena afforded by advanced manufacturing technologies.
CEMM
Center for Engineered Materials and Manufacturing
CEMM develops new additive manufacturing capabilities for micro- and nanoscale features and mixed materials, which are used to fabricate architected materials with unique properties.
CFF
Contained Firing Facility
The Contained Firing Facility (CFF) handles large-scale, non-nuclear, hydrodynamic experiments with full containment of hazardous materials. Unique diagnostics record experimental results for nuclear weapons and explosives research and development.
EMC
Energetic Materials Center
The Energetic Materials Center conducts research and development on the performance of high explosives in support of the Laboratory’s defense, nuclear deterrence and homeland security missions.
HEAF
High Explosives Applications Facility
The High Explosives Applications Facility (HEAF) integrates the operations of synthesis, formulation and testing of explosive materials in a single, synergistic facility.
LEAF
The Laboratory for Energy Applications for the Future
The Laboratory for Energy Applications for the Future (LEAF) develops disruptive technologies — from inception to demonstration — for the grid, transportation and the environment.
PE
Polymer Enclave
The Polymer Enclave accelerates the design-to-deployment of additively manufactured weapon components critical to modernizing the U.S. nuclear stockpile.
