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Livermore astronaut mural encourages people to ‘Dream Big’
At the age of 10, Larry Lagin already knew he wanted to become a scientist — his inspiration was NASA’s space program. “It was the space program that really got me involved and excited to go into science,” said Lagin, former deputy project manager for the National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world’s largest and most energetic laser. “It was something that really inspired…
Johnny Foster at 100
The Laboratory’s Johnny Foster: nuclear weapon designer and team leader, former Laboratory director, former director of Defense Research and Engineering at the Department of Defense and record-setting ski jumper, turns 100 years old this week. As he does so, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory celebrates a century of his extraordinary life and accomplishments. “In my…
Lab directors discuss LLNL’s past, present and future at ‘historic conversation’
On a historic occasion in the Livermore wine country, the nine living Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) directors gathered on Sept. 8 to mark the Laboratory’s 70th anniversary, share stories and discuss their vision for the Lab in the coming years. Hosted by the nonprofit Livermore Lab Foundation, the panel brought past directors John Foster Jr., John Nuckolls,…
LLNL’s new diffraction gratings will enable the world’s most powerful laser
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers and their collaborators have developed new high-energy pulse compression gratings that will be used in the world’s highest-power laser system, designed to deliver up to 10 petawatts (quadrillion watts) of peak power. A petawatt is about 1,000 times the capacity of the entire U.S. electric grid. The high-energy, low…
Lab scientist wins outstanding doctoral thesis award from American Physical Society
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist Alison Ruth Christopherson has earned the American Physical Society’s (APS) Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis award. The award recognizes exceptional early-career scientists who have performed original thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of plasma physics…
Burning Plasma Team receives honor from American Physical Society
The Burning Plasma Team has been awarded the 2022 John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research by the American Physical Society. The team consists of members from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and from other institutions. The team was cited “for the first laboratory demonstration of a burning deuterium-tritium plasma where alpha heating…
A deep dive into the interior of red dwarfs
Red dwarfs are the most abundant stars in the Milky Way, making up 70% of all stars. But the physics of their interiors is not well understood. Heat is generated in the core and travels outward to the surface, but it is not clear whether that process occurs via radiation, convection or a combination of the two. The key factor determining whether red dwarfs are radiation-…
LLNL hosts HBCU students, faculty in week-long outreach program
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) hosted a group of students and faculty from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for a week in June to promote internships, job opportunities and career paths at LLNL. Judging from the group’s reaction and feedback, the inaugural week-long HBCU tour was a clear success and made a positive impression on the…
Livermore researchers collect three awards among the top 100 industrial inventions
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and engineers have garnered three awards among the top 100 industrial inventions worldwide. The trade journal R&D World Magazine recently announced the winners of the awards, often called the “Oscars of invention,” recognizing new commercial products, technologies and materials that are available for sale or…
Carolyn Zerkle named Lawrence Livermore’s deputy director
Carolyn Zerkle has been selected as Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s deputy director and vice president of Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC, Lab Director Kim Budil announced today. Her appointment is effective Sept. 12, 2022. As deputy director, Zerkle will participate in the day-to-day management of the Laboratory, including interfacing with the Livermore…
Miriam E. John Awarded Livermore’s 2022 John S. Foster Medal
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Director Kim Budil has announced that the 2022 John S. Foster, Jr. Medal winner is Miriam “Mim” E. John, vice president emerita of Sandia National Laboratories. John served as vice president of Sandia's California Division and Homeland Security Strategic Management Unit from 1999 until 2006. She served in various capacities at Sandia…
LLNL and Korea Institute of Science and Technology to collaborate
Leaders at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Monday to collaborate on basic science and technology in the renewable energy, climate science, data science and characterizations arenas. Under the MOU, KIST will have office space in the Livermore Open Campus…
Researchers design a compact high-power laser using plasma optics
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have designed a compact multi-petawatt laser that uses plasma transmission gratings to overcome the power limitations of conventional solid-state optical gratings. The design could enable construction of an ultrafast laser up to 1,000 times more powerful than existing lasers of the same size. Petawatt (quadrillion…
LLNL joins forces with supercomputing centers in Germany, the UK and the US to form IASC
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has signed a memorandum of understanding with high performance computing (HPC) facilities in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, jointly forming the International Association of Supercomputing Centers (IASC). LLNL and co-founders — the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre, the National…
LLNL cancer research goes exascale
A Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) team will be among the first researchers to perform work on the world’s first exascale supercomputer — Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier — when they use the system to model cancer-causing protein mutations. Led by Harsh Bhatia, a computer scientist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) at LLNL, the team…
American Society of Safety Professionals honors Tom Kohut with safety award
The American Society of Safety Professionals, San Francisco Chapter, has awarded Tom Kohut, an operations manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), with the “Managers Who Get Safety” award. The award is presented to operational managers who have demonstrated significant leadership in safety at all levels of their organization…
LLNL helping create a cryo target capability for French laser facility
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are collaborating with the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, known as CEA, to help develop a cryogenic target system for the CEA’s Laser Mégajoule (LMJ). The LMJ is a laser fusion counterpart to the National Ignition Facility (NIF), now conducting experiments near Bordeaux, France. Like NIF,…
Andean glaciers reacted in unison with polar ice in changing climate
For the first time, scientists have shown that glaciers in the tropical Andes mountains have been in sync with polar ice extent in Antarctica and the Arctic for nearly a million years. New research by an international team, including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientist Christine Y. Chen, records glacier movement in the Southern Hemisphere that dates…
NIF welcomes 100,000th visitor
When the 100,000th visitor to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) walked through the door last month, there were no bells or whistles. But it was a monumental moment. “Ever since groundbreaking, NIF has attracted visitors because of its sheer size, mission and reputation as the world’s largest and most energetic laser facility,” says NIF Operations Manager Bruno Von…
It’s only natural: separation and purification of rare-earth elements by microorganisms
Using naturally occurring and engineered proteins and bacteria, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators will separate and purify rare-earth elements so they can be used in the defense sector. Under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Environmental Microbes as a BioEngineering Resource (EMBER) program, the team was…
