Program

Welcome Reception & Registration Desk

Plaza of the Institute of the Americas at 7:15 p.m. You can arrive as early as 6:00 p.m. to check-in at the registration desk.

There will be a welcome reception with drinks and desserts in the Plaza of the Institute of the Americas on Sunday July 16 at 19:15 or 7:15 p.m.  This reception is open to all summer school attendees.  At this reception, you will check-in with the school organizers, receive your name badge and socialize with other students attending the 2023 school program. 

Students must be at least 21 years old to drink alchoholic beverages.

Walking directions from Pines to the Institute of the Americas is below.

Félicie Albert, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Félicie Albert is a scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the National Ignition Facility and Photon Science directorate, and the deputy director for LLNL’s center for High Energy Density Science Center and Jupiter Laser Facility.

Félicie earned her PhD in physics in 2007 from the Ecole Polytechnique in France, her MS in Optics from the University of Central Florida in 2004, and her BS in engineering from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Physique de Marseille, France, in 2003. Her areas of expertise include the generation and applications of novel sources of electrons, x-rays and gamma-rays through laser-plasma interaction, laser-wakefield acceleration, and Compton scattering. She has conducted many experiments using high-intensity lasers at various facilities around the world.

Félicie received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2019, was awarded a 2016 DOE Early Career Research Program Award to develop new x-ray sources for high energy density science experiments and has been leading several Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) projects at LLNL. She is the recipient of the 2017 American Physical Society (APS) Katherine E. Weimer Award for outstanding contributions to plasma science research and of the 2017 Edouard Fabre Prize for contributions to the physics of laser-produced plasmas. She was elected a Fellow of the APS (Division of Plasma Physics) in 2019, a National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow in 2020 and a Fellow of Optica (formerly OSA) in 2023.

She served as chair of LaserNetUS, a network for 10 high power lasers in North America between 2020-2022, as well as on the NAS committee for the assessment of High Energy Density Science in 2021-2022.

E. Michael Campbell, Retired 

Dr. Campbell is an internationally known expert in inertial fusion, high-energy-density physics, high-power lasers and their applications, and advanced energy technologies including Generation IV nuclear fission reactors and biofuels. He has won numerous awards including the Department of Energy's E. O. Lawrence Award, the American Nuclear Society's Edward Teller Award, the American Physical Society's John Dawson Award, the Department of Energy's Excellence in Weapons Research Award, and the Leadership Award of Fusion Power Associates. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and Optica. He has published over 250 articles in scientific journals and holds five patents including the design of the first laboratory x-ray laser. He has given numerous invited and plenary talks at both national and international conferences. He is the originator of the Inertial Fusion Science and Applications Conference.

Dr. Campbell has been a member of numerous committees providing advice and strategy, including the National Academy of Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Texas, the National Research Council of Canada, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of Rochester, Lockheed Martin Corporation and the Missile Defense Agency. He served on the Board of Evans and Sutherland Corporation and has worked in various scientific and leadership positions at federal laboratories, universities and the private sector including Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, General Atomics, Logos Technologies, Sandia National Laboratories, and the University of Rochester. Campbell retired in April 2022 from the University Of Rochester where he was the Director of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics and now consults with a focus on fission energy, fusion and high power lasers and their applications. He has received his degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the University of Western Sydney.

Hui Chen, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 

Dr. Hui Chen joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1999 after receiving her Ph.D. in plasma physics from Imperial College, London. Her chief research interests are in High Energy Density plasma physics, including Inertial Confinement Fusion experiments on the National Ignition Facility, intense laser produced relativistic electron-positron pairs, x-ray imaging using novel gated sensors, and x-ray spectroscopy. She is also currently developing graduate courses on High Energy Density plasmas and diagnostics. She became an APS Fellow in 2016.

Gilbert Collins, University of Rochester

Gilbert ‘Rip’ Collins is Tracy Hyde Harris Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy, Associate Director for the Laboratory for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Ohio State University and then worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as Group Leader, Associate Division Leader for Physics, Director for the Center for High Energy Density Physics, and Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff. Rip explores the nature and implications of matter at conditions where external forces overwhelm the quantum forces of the atom, and the microphysics of thermonuclear fusion. He is Director of the NSF Physics Frontier Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures. He holds visiting Professorships at The University of Edinburgh and Oxford University. He is recipient of the Bridgman Award, APS Fellow, APS award for Excellence in Plasma Physics, U.S. DOE Weapons Recognition of Excellence Award, NNSA Award for Excellence for Stockpile Stewardship Program, and NNSA Science and Technology Award. He was Chair of High-Pressure Gordon Conference, the APS Shock Compression of Condensed Matter meeting, and the AIRAPT meeting, and has aired on several television and radio shows describing extreme matter, planetary science and fusion science (e.g. Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic Series, Cosmos).

Chandra Breanne Curry,  SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Dr. Chandra Breanne Curry is a Project Scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, specializing in ultra-intense laser plasmas and high-energy density science. She holds a B.Sc. in Honours Physics from McGill University and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Alberta.

During her doctoral research, Dr. Curry focused on laser-driven ion acceleration from cryogenic hydrogen jets, receiving recognition through prestigious awards such as the NSERC Postgraduate Doctoral Scholarship (PGS-D) and Postdoctoral Fellowship (PDF).

As the LaserNetUS Coordinator, Dr. Curry plays a pivotal role in overseeing a collaborative network of leading laser facilities across the United States. Her responsibilities include coordinating programs and activities, facilitating user access to cutting-edge laser facilities, managing proposal review processes, and fostering collaborations between researchers and facility operators. Her contributions ensure the smooth operation and advancement of LaserNetUS, empowering scientists to conduct groundbreaking research in high power laser science and driving innovation in the field.

Dustin Froula, University of Rochester

Prof. Dustin Froula received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Physics from the University of California, Davis in 2000 and 2002, respectively. After working as a research scientist at the National Ignition Facility Inertial Confinement Fusion Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (2002–2010), he spent a year on sabbatical at the University of California, Los Angeles where he completed the book, Plasma Scattering of Electromagnetic Radiation: Theory and Measurement Techniques. He then joined the research staff at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) as a Senior Scientist before becoming the Plasma and Ultrafast Physics Group Leader in 2011, and the Director of Plasma & Ultrafast Laser Science & Engineering in 2021. He is a full Professor of Physics (research) in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. In 2007, he received the Department of Energy’s Outstanding Mentor Award for his work with undergraduate and graduate students. He was selected as a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2017 for the “development and application of Thomson scattering to understand thermal transport and the onset of laser–plasma instabilities in indirect- and direct-drive fusion experiments.” In 2019 he was awarded the John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research, “For innovative experiments that demonstrate turbulent dynamo in the laboratory, establishing laboratory experiments as a component in the study of turbulent magnetized plasmas, and opening a new path to laboratory investigations of other astrophysical processes.” In 2020, he received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award in fusion and plasma sciences “For seminal and creative contributions in fundamental laser-matter interaction physics, and laser-driven plasma accelerators that have significantly advanced the Department of Energy’s mission, including pioneering spatiotemporal pulse shaping techniques, focused laser–plasma instability research, and novel high-resolution Thomson scattering methods.”

Prof. Froula’s research interests are in the fields of Experimental Plasma and Laser Physics. His research covers the many areas relevant to inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and high-energy-density physics. This includes laser–plasma interactions (stimulated Brillouin, Raman scattering, two-plasmon decay, cross-beam energy transfer), underdense hydrodynamics, Thomson scattering, laser–plasma acceleration (wakefield acceleration), and short-pulse Raman amplification. His research is currently primarily focused around the OMEGA, OMEGA EP, MTW, and OPAL Laser Systems at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. 

Cameron Geddes, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Cameron Geddes is the Director of the Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He leads the division in inventing, developing, and deploying particle accelerators and photon sources to explore and control matter and energy, as well as systems for fusion, new materials, and related areas of applied physics. His research focuses on study of laser driven plasma waves and their applications to compact particle accelerators and photon sources. Past research has included work on inertial confinement fusion laser plasma interactions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Polymath research, as well as on tokamak and spheromak plasmas. He is a Fellow of the APS DPP and a recipient of the Society's Dawson award. He received the Ph.D. in 2005 at the University of California, Berkeley, supported by the Hertz Fellowship, where he received the Hertz and APS Rosenbluth dissertation awards for demonstration of a laser driven, plasma based electron accelerator producing mono-energetic beams.

Igor Golovkin, Prism Computational Sciences

Igor Golovkin is a Chief Technology Officer at Prism Computational Sciences – a company that develops and applies innovative software tools for scientific research and commercial applications in the physical sciences and engineering. His main focus of research has been on the studies of plasmas created in high-power laser, z-pinch, and ion beam experiments. He leads the development of radiation-hydrodynamics and synthetic diagnostics simulation tools applicable to research in high-energy-density laboratory plasmas. Related interests include high-performance computing, metaheuristics, magnetic and inertial fusion.

Kuhika Gupta, University of Oklahoma

Kuhika Gupta is the Associate Director of Energy and Security at the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (IPPRA). Her research focuses on the policy process and how social, political, and institutional factors influence policymaking. She studies multiple policy domains including energy policy, environmental policy, and weather and climate policy. She has spent over a decade studying public perceptions regarding nuclear energy as well as the factors that influence nuclear facility siting from a global comparative perspective. She has led and managed several federally funded projects studying the public views about energy technologies and facility siting.

Gianluca Gregori, University of Oxford

Gianluca Gregori received his MS in Nuclear Engineering in 1997 from the University of Bologna, Italy, and in 2001 he obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. In 2002 he also received an MS in Astrophysics from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. From 2001-2005 he was first a postdoctoral associate and then a staff scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in the National Ignition Facility directorate, adn from 2005-2007 Gianluca was a senior scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, in the Central Laser Facility. In 2007 he moved to the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, and the college of Lady Margaret Hall. In 2012 He became Lecturer in Physics and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall and in 2013 he was promoted to Professor in Physics. While in Oxford, Gianluca has run a research group focussing on both the microscopic measurement of highly compressed matter and the generation and amplification of magnetic fields by plasma turbulent processes. More recently he has also expanded his interests in laboratory astroparticle physics as well as search for physics beyond the standard model using high-power laser facilities. He was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2016, and Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2017.

Eric Hahn, ASML

Dr. Eric Hahn is the Plasma Research Project Lead at ASML in the EUV Source Technology Development Department. He leads the group in coordinating power scaling demonstrations on EUV source research prototypes. He holds a B.S. in Materials Engineering from California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from UC San Diego. During his doctoral research, he used a combination of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations and high-energy pulsed-laser shock experiments to quantify strength and failure mechanisms of silicon and tantalum under extreme loading conditions. Two key research interests are the interplay between initial conditions & material defects on the dynamic properties of matter, and laser-produced plasma generated pressure/shock waves. His graduate and postdoctoral work at Los Alamos National Lab and UC San Diego emphasized validation of simulations and models against diverse experimental campaigns conducted at Los Alamos National Lab, Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Nevada Test Site, and Argon National Lab.

Russell J. Hemley, University of Illinois at Chicago

Russell J. Hemley holds the position of LAS Distinguished Chair in the Natural Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research explores the behavior of matter and materials in extreme environments, notably high pressures and temperatures, with applications to fundamental physics and chemistry, materials science and technology, and earth and planetary science. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University, and M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, all in chemistry. Previously, he worked at the Carnegie Institution and has held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Cornell University, and George Washington University. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Honoris Causa Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and is a recipient of the Balzan Prize and Percy W. Bridgman Award, among other honors. He has directed national materials science centers funded by the DOE, DoD, and NSF, and currently directs three such centers at UIC, including the Chicago/DOE Alliance Center (CDAC). He also serves on government advisory committees. Hemley has authored or co-authored approximately 690 publications. His most recent research has focused on the design, discovery, and synthesis of novel energy materials. Notable in the area are his group’s theoretical prediction and experimental confirmation of the first near-room temperature superconductor and recent studies of superconductivity in hydrides that operate near ambient conditions.

Chris Holland, UC San Diego

Dr. Holland’s current research focuses on advancing our understanding of turbulent transport in tokamaks, and using this understanding to improve the predictive modeling and design tools needed for development of economically attractive fusion energy power plants. As part of the AToM SciDAC project. Dr. Holland and his collaborators conduct verification and validation studies of plasma turbulence using both massively parallel gyrokinetic codes and reduced gyrofluid models, to establish confidence in their ability to accurately predict the dynamics of future burning plasma devices. In addition to their AToM team members, Dr. Holland’s group performs these studies in close collaboration with members of the General Atomics theory group, the DIII-D experimental team, and colleagues at other U.S. and international tokamak experiments. Most recently, a growing part of Dr. Holland’s research has focused on carrying out integrated predictive modeling studies of compact tokamak power plants. These studies are being used to better identify key uncertainties and sensitivities in predictions of reactor performance, to help guide future verification and validation work.

Joe Kilkenny, General Atomics

Dr Joe Kilkenny is VP for High Energy Density Science at General Atomics. Joe has made major contributions to experimental Inertial Confinement Fusion for nearly 50 years with about 300 refereed publications in ICF. From 2008 until recently he managed the NIF Diagnostics which were crucial to NIF recently achieving ignition.

Joe was a Reader at Imperial College, London where he researched non-linear thermal transport, hydrodynamic instabilities, plasma spectroscopy and implosions while supervising 15 graduate students, many of whom now occupy leadership positions in the US. Joe came to the US in 1983 to LLNL, where he became leader of the LLNL ICF Program by 1995. Experiments he led were the basis for favorable recommendations on constructing the NIF. Joe has won many Awards: The Teller Award, the APS Excellence in Plasma Physics Award, the SPIE Conrady Prize, an IRD Award and Fellowship of the APS.

Pat Knapp, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Pat Knapp is currently at Los Alamos National Laboratory where he is the Pulsed Power HED and ICF lead. He has extensive experience designing, conducting, and analyzing HED and ICF experiments on the Z machine at Sandia National Labs, the world’s largest pulsed power generator. He is an expert in the application of Bayesian inference and machine learning to the analysis of experimental data and the design of experiments. He obtained his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University in 2011 where he developed novel x-ray spectroscopic techniques to study pulsed power drive HED plasmas. He has spent the last 12 years at Sandia National Laboratories in the Pulsed Power Sciences Center where he studied High Energy Density Physics and Inertial Confinement fusion.

Paul Krueger, UC San Diego

Paul is a technical project manager at UC San Diego IT Services and manages a wide range of projects throughout the organization while also regularly implementing project management process improvements for the Project Portfolio Management Office. Paul served five years in the U.S. Navy, including one year in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom as an Assistant Operations Officer, where he successfully planned and executed over two hundred air and ground combat and civil affairs missions. Following military service, Paul completed his BA in history at San Diego State University, earned the Project Management Certificate at UC San Diego Extension, and was Veterans Coordinator at Southwestern College before joining UC San Diego.

Keith LeChien, Pacific Fusion Corporation

Dr. Keith LeChien is the Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer for Pacific Fusion Corporation. He is an internationally recognized leader in pulsed magnetic fusion science and technology. He recently co-led a fusion project at Alphabet's X division and serves as the chair of ZNetUS. Before joining X, Keith was the leader of LLNL's magnetically-driven high-energy density physics program and led target design for pulsed magnetic fusion experiments at the Z Facility. Prior to his work at LLNL, he oversaw the Inertial Confinement Fusion Program for the DOE and was the federal lead author of the multi-year scientific framework that led to ignition at the National Ignition Facility in December 2022. While with DOE, Keith served as a Brookings Institution Legis Fellow with the US Senate. Before joining the DOE, Keith was a principal staff member in advanced accelerator physics at SNL. Keith has authored or co-authored more than 50 technical publications on pulsed power and fusion science and technology.

Burkhard Militzer, UC Berkeley

Burkhard Militzer is professor of planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the director of the Center for Integrative Planetary Science (CIPS). Since 2007, he has been on the faculty of the Department of Earth and Planetary Science and the Department of Astronomy. He has a background in condensed matter physics and received his PhD from the University of Urbana-Champaign in 2000. Today he works on equation of state calculations of matter at extreme conditions and has recently released the First-Principles equation of state (FPEOS) database. He also studies interiors of giant planets and is co-Investigator of the NASA missions Juno.

Taisuke Nagayama, Sandia National Laboratories

Taisuke Nagayama is a physicist and staff scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, known for his significant research contributions on 3-D temperature and density tomography of ICF implosion cores, as well as iron opacity measurements at solar interior temperatures [Bailey, Nagayama, et al Nature (2015); Nagayama et al, PRL (2019)]. He is an expert in x-ray spectroscopy and uses his computational skills to connect theory, experiment, simulation, and diagnostics. His recent publication on “A generalized approach to x-ray data modeling for high-energy-density plasma experiments” (Rev. Sci. Instrum. 94 053501 (2023)) offers valuable insights into x-ray data modeling for high-energy-density plasma experiments, providing a unified understanding of the subject.

Joe Ripberger, University of Oklahoma

Joe Ripberger is the Deputy Director for Research at the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (IPPRA). His research focuses on risk and public policy with an emphasis on public reception, understanding, trust, and response to scientific information. He works with a wide variety of federal agencies to develop, implement, and evaluate risk communication strategies and programs.

Raspberry Simpson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Dr. Raspberry Simpson is a Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she leads a project focusing on using machine learning tools to optimize laser-driven proton sources. She completed her PhD in the Nuclear Science and Engineering department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focusing on high-energy density physics and was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and NNSA Laboratory Residency Graduate Fellowship. Prior to beginning her graduate studies, Dr. Simpson worked in the Physics Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico developing neutron imaging diagnostics for inertial confinement fusion experiments at the National Ignition Facility and electron radiography for material science studies. She received her undergraduate degree at Columbia University in Applied Physics.

Michael Stadermann, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Michael Stadermann is the Target Fabrication Program manager for the NIF & Photon Science Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Stadermann manages all aspects of LLNL’s consolidated high energy density (HED) and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) target fabrication and production efforts, including engineering design and science and technology development.

In this role, he integrates the target fabrication work performed at General Atomics (GA) and ManTech International Corp., sets the strategic direction of the LLNL-related target fabrication program, supports ongoing and future HED programs for NIF and the Weapons and Complex Integration (WCI) Directorate, and oversees the development of advanced target capabilities through science and technology funding provided by the Laboratory.

An established leader in the field of target fabrication, Stadermann has been with LLNL for nearly two decades. Most recently he served as the Target Fabrication deputy program lead and director of the Laboratory for Energy Applications for the Future (LEAF). He joined LLNL as a postdoctoral fellow after earning his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Stadermann’s research has primarily focused on materials and methods for target fabrication, including surfaces, interfaces, and ultra-thin polymer films. Beyond that, he has been heavily involved with research on electrochemistry and energy storage and has built a capacitive desalination group with an international reputation. He has contributed to almost every aspect of NIF targets—most significantly in capsule support, where his work on ultra-thin films was recognized with an R&D 100 Award.

Frank Tsung, UC Los Angeles

Frank Tsung is a research scientist at UCLA and is one of the developer of the particle-in-cell code OSIRIS.  His research interest includes laser plasma interactions, high energy density plasma physics, and high performance computing.  He received his PhD in UCLA under John Dawson.

Petros Tzeferacos, Laboratory for Laser Energetics at University of Rochester

Petros Tzeferacos received his degree in Physics from the Physics Department of the University of Athens, Greece, in 2006, and earned his Ph.D. in Physics and Astrophysics from the Physics Department of the University of Turin, Italy, in 2010. His doctoral research was on jet-launching mechanisms in astrophysical accretion disks. From 2010 to 2012 he was a postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Physics of the University of Turin, where he worked on accretion disk dynamics, numerical methods for computational astrophysics, and the development of the astrophysics code PLUTO. In 2012 he joined as a postdoctoral scholar the Flash Center for Computational Science at the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics of the University of Chicago. There, he became Research Assistant Professor in 2013 and Research Associate Professor in 2019. Tzeferacos leads the development of FLASH since 2013; FLASH is a publicly available multi-physics high-performance computing code used by the astrophysics and plasma physics research communities. He became the Associate Director of the Flash Center in 2013 and its Director in 2018. In 2020, Tzeferacos moved the Flash Center for Computational Science to the University of Rochester, where he became Associate Professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Senior Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Tzeferacos works on plasma physics and astrophysics, combining MHD theory, numerical modeling, and laser-driven laboratory experiments, to study fundamental astrophysical plasma processes with a focus on magnetized turbulence, dynamo, and charged particle acceleration and transport. He was elected vice chair of the High Energy Density Science Association (HESDA) in 2017, member of the Omega Laser User Group Executive Committee in 2018, vice chair of the NIF User Group Executive Committee in 2019, and chair in 2021, vice chair of SimNet-LaserNetUS in 2021, and member of the HEDSA Steering Committee and vice chair again in 2022. He holds a visiting scientist position with the University of Oxford since 2013 and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 2015. He received the APS John Dawson Award for Excellence in plasma Physics Research in 2019 and an Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science in 2021.

Jean-Luc Vay, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Jean-Luc Vay is a senior scientist and the head of the Accelerator Modeling Program in the Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research focuses on the development of algorithms and codes, and their use for the modeling of various particle beams, accelerators, and plasma applications. Past research has included work on inertial confinement fusion driven by laser or heavy ion beams. He is leading the multi-institutions DOE Exascale Computing Project application WarpX and the DOE SciDAC Collaboration for Advanced Modeling of Particle Accelerators (CAMPA). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and the recipient of the 2013 US Particle Accelerator School Prize for Achievement in Accelerator Physics & Technology, the 2014 NERSC Award for Innovative Use of High-Performance Computing and the 2022 ACM Gordon Bell Prize for outstanding achievement in high-performance computing.

Jackson Williams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Dr. Jackson Williams is an experimental plasma physicist working on inertial confinement fusion, ultraintense laser-matter interactions, and high energy density science at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California. Dr. Williams graduated from with a B.A. in physics and mathematics from St. Olaf College (MN) in 2008, then received an M.S. in applied physics from DePaul University (Chicago, IL) in 2010. He completed his Ph.D. in Applied Science from University of California, Davis in 2016, studying laser-driven positron-electron pair generation at LLNL as a Lawrence Scholar. Dr. Williams is now a staff research scientist where he primarily leads experiments at large- and mid-scale laser facilities focusing on the development of x-ray and particle sources for the investigation of HED systems.

Simon Woodruff , Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

After a decade of research into innovative fusion concepts at the University of Manchester (PhD), Lawrence Livermore National Lab (Postdoc), UC Berkeley Department of Nuclear Engineering (Visiting Scholar), and the University of Washington (Research Scientist), Dr. Woodruff founded Woodruff Scientific to help accelerate the development of economic fusion energy. Woodruff has performed work under contract to DOE, universities, national labs and to the private sector, building research devices, performing modeling and simulations primarily directed at simply-connected (hence more compact and simpler-to-engineer) fusion systems. Dr. Woodruff founded Compact Fusion Systems Inc in 2017 to nucleate IP around an ARPA-E supported fusion power core. Dr. Woodruff hosts an annual Scientific Computing Bootcamp for undergrads, introducing many of the tools in common use for High Performance Computing. Recently Dr. Woodruff founded SciVista Inc, a company dedicated to the visualization, communication and analysis of large datasets, and has found support from the US DOE to develop a collaborative VR data platform for Fusion Energy Sciences. Dr. Woodruff has organized national workshops in fusion energy sciences, and is a current participant in two IAEA initiatives on compact fusion neutron sources and private fusion development. Dr. Woodruff is a member of the American Physical Society.

Jonathan D. Zuegel, University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics

Dr. Jonathan D. Zuegel is the Laser and Materials Technology Division Director, and a Distinguished Scientist at the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Dr. Zuegel led the Laser Development and Engineering Division from 2014 to 2019, and the Laser Technology Development Group from 2001 to 2014.

Dr. Zuegel is a Fellow of the Optica (formerly OSA). He has served as program chair and general chair for the OSA Advanced Solid State Photonics (ASSP) topical meeting and the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), program chair for the conference of the International Committee on Ultra-Intense Lasers (ICUIL), a member of the CLEO Steering Committee, and he directed the 2019 OSAF Siegman Summer School on Lasers. He has also served on international advisory committees related to the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) in Europe and he has chaired the joint DESY-European XFEL Laser Advisory Committee and the Extreme Photonics Applications Center ISTAC at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Dr. Zuegel joined LLE in 1996 after receiving his Ph.D. in Optics from The Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. He received his B.S. (1983) and Masters of Engineering (1984) in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and served in the U.S. Navy in the Department of Energy Division of Naval Reactors. Dr. Zuegel is author or co-author on more than 130 papers and more than 270 conference presentations.

Alex B Zylstra, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Dr. Alex Zylstra is the experimental lead for the ‘Hybrid E’ campaign within the inertial confinement fusion program on NIF. This campaign improved implosion performance from previous records, first surpassing the burning-plasma threshold, Lawson’s criterion for igntiion, and most recently the first laboratory experiment to produce target gain with a fusion yield over 3 MJ. He also works on projects related to nuclear astrophysics. Alex started working in inertial fusion as a graduate student at MIT, where he was supported by the Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship in his work on OMEGA and NIF. After graduating in 2015 he went to Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Reines Distinguished Postdoctoral fellow. In 2018 he both took a position with Lawrence Livermore as the experimental lead for the Hybrid E campaign on NIF and was awarded a DOE Early Career grant for his work on nuclear astrophysics.

Date & Time

There will be two poster sessions: 2:30 p.m. on Monday, July 17, and 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 18.

Students are assigned to one of these poster sessions.

Poster Assignments, Titles and Abstracts

View poster assignments (session and board number) and titles and abstracts.

General Poster Guidelines

• Final poster titles and abstracts will be collected at a date closer to the event.  An email will be sent to accepted participants to annouce this deadline.
• SIZE: Poster boards will be 48”x 96” double-sided boards oriented horizontally.
• Boards are made from cork and push pins will be provided.
• We cannot print any posters. You must make arrangements to print your poster prior to the poster session.
• Each poster presenter will be assigned a number, which corresponds to a board number. Please place your poster on the board that matches your number.
• A group of experts will determine the 3 best student posters and single best postdoc poster. (Student prizes, first: $100, second: $75, third: $50; postdoc prize, $125)

Set-up

Poster set-up will be available starting at 11:15 a.m. on the day of your session. Posters must be displayed no later than 2:15 p.m. on the day of your session.

Displaying Poster

The poster session is open from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Take-Down of Poster

All posters should remain up for viewing throughout the entire poster session.  You may take down your poster after 4:30 p.m.  We request that you do not leave your posters up over night.  Any posters left after the poster sessions will be removed.

Date & Time

There will be two talk sessions: 4:45 p.m. on Monday, July 17, and 4:45 p.m. Tuesday, July 18.  (Directly after the poster sessions.)

Students will be assigned to a specific time during a specific session.

Short Talk Assignments, Titles and Abstracts

View short talk session assignments and titles and abstracts.

General Talk Guidelines

• Talks last 15 minutes and allow for a 5 minute Q&A. 
  • You will be cut off after 15 minutes.
• We recommend creating a powerpoint slide deck to accompany your talk.
  • You can find tips for creating a research talk here.
• A group of experts will determine the 3 best student talks and single best postdoc talk.  (Student prizes, first: $100, second: $75, third: $50; postdoc prize, $125)

General Atomics is located off campus.  A bus will take students from UCSD to GA.

Thursday, July 27 at 2:30 p.m. (sharp!)

Please note that we can only offer the tour of General Atomics to U.S. Citizens. Other students will be able to tour on-campus lab facilities instead.

Please Bring:

• Bring a State or Federal issued ID (i.e Driver’s license or ID card) – a Student ID card is not acceptable.
• Tour attendees are required to wear closed-toe footwear for safety. No high heels or open toe shoes/sandals will be allowed inside the machine hall.
• Pacemakers can react with the magnets in the machine with DIII-D is in operation. We will likely not be in operation, but please contact the school organizers before the tour.

Closing Reception at Dirty Birds

Friday, July 28, at 6:00 p.m. 

There will be a closing reception at Dirty Birds, a restaurant located on the University campus on Friday, July 28, at 18:00 or 6:00 p.m.  Food and drinks will be served.  This event is open to all attendees of the summer school.  Students must be at least 21 years old to drink alchoholic beverages.

Below are walking directions to Dirty Birds from the campus residential area.