Acknowledging exception performance, service, and expertise
Recognition by the scientific community and other stakeholders affirms the high quality of Livermore’s work and innovative spirit. The awards on these pages showcase the efforts of the Laboratory’s talented staff.
DOE and NNSA Awards
Two scientists are recipients of the prestigious 2021 E.O. Lawrence Award that recognizes mid-career U.S. scientists and engineers for exceptional scientific, technical, and engineering achievements related to the broad missions of DOE and its programs. Jennifer Pett-Ridge was recognized for her research in biological and environmental sciences for pioneering work in quantitative microbial ecology and leadership in developing and applying isotopic tools to discover and quantify how the changing climate shapes the roles of microorganisms and plants in environmental biogeochemical cycles. Sofia Quaglioni was cited for her work in nuclear physics, specifically for seminal contributions unifying the theory of structure and reactions of light nuclei, providing predictive capability critical for understanding inertial fusion and nuclear astrophysics, as well as pioneering applications of quantum device simulations for nuclear dynamics.
Three scientists are recipients of the DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program award. Mimi Yung, John Despotopulos, and Timofey Frolov, are among 83 awardees receiving the recognition. Typical awards for DOE national laboratory staff are $500,000 per year in research support for five years.
DOE Project Leadership Institute (PLI) selected Lara Leininger and Al Churby as 2022 cohort participants. Members of the PLI cohort have demonstrated their expertise as technical, business systems, or project leaders, with significant experience and responsibility for project or organization performance and resources.
Nine project teams and one individual were recognized with NNSA Defense Programs Awards of Excellence for significant achievements in quality, productivity, cost savings, safety, or creativity in support of NNSA’s nuclear weapons program.
Computer scientist Kathryn Mohror and materials scientist T. Yong Han are among 33 individuals from all 17 DOE national laboratories selected as 2022 fellows by the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program (OSELP). Established in 2017, OSELP is a distinguished fellowship program that brings together exceptional leaders to explore the complexities, challenges, and opportunities facing the national laboratory system and DOE.
LLNL and NNSA officials presented members of the Expand Electrical Distribution System (EEDS) project team with the Secretary of Energy’s Achievement Award for Project Management. Among the highest honors a DOE employee or contractor can receive, the award recognized the 50-plus-member EEDS team for finishing the massive electrical system upgrade at LLNL four months ahead of schedule and more than $1 million under budget.
![LLNL scientists named fellows of the American Physical Society (Andrea [Annie] Kritcher and Ronnie Shepherd).](https://annual.llnl.gov/sites/annual/files/styles/scaled_300w/public/2023-02/12-workforce-3-2022.jpg?itok=AKhRONUb "12-workforce-3-2022.jpg")
Professional Society Fellows
Physicists Andrea (Annie) Kritcher and Ronnie Shepherd were selected by the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics as fellows. Annie Kritcher was chosen for leadership in hohlraum design physics leading to the creation of the first laboratory burning and igniting fusion plasma. Ronnie Shepherd was selected for contributions to understanding dense energetic plasmas through experiments at short-pulse lasers and for the development of time-resolved diagnostics for the measurements.
The American Society for Precision Engineering has announced Laboratory research engineer Robert Panas as the organization’s new president-elect.
Christopher Stolz has been elected as a fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
Richard Klein has been selected as a 2022 fellow of the American Astronomical Society for scientific achievements on radiatively driven stellar winds and star formation theory.
Science and Technology Awards
The Fusion Energy Division of the American Nuclear Society presented the 2021 Edward Teller award to Omar Hurricane for his “visionary scientific insights and leadership of National Ignition Facility experiments resulting in the achievement of fuel gain, an alpha-heating-dominated plasma, and a burning plasma.”
The Fusion Power Associates (FPA) Board of Directors has selected physicist Debbie Callahan as a recipient of its 2022 Leadership Award. The FPA Board recognized her decades of leadership and outstanding contributions to the design of hohlraum targets for implosion experiments at NIF and to the mentoring of younger scientists.
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) announced computational mathematician Rob Falgout as the recipient of the 2022 SIAM Activity Group on Supercomputing Career Prize for his broad and distinguished contributions to the field of algorithms research and development for parallel scientific and engineering computing.
A suite developed by a Laboratory team to simplify evaluation of approximation techniques for scientific applications has won the first-ever Best Reproducibility Advancement Award at the 2021 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC21). Recognized were scientists Konstantinos Parasyris, Giorgis Georgakoudis, Harshitha Menon, James Diffenderfer, Ignacio Laguna, Daniel Osei-Kuffuor, and Markus Schordan.
Special Honors
The principal associate director for Global Security, Huban Gowadia, was inducted into the state of Alabama’s Engineering Hall of Fame.
The University of California President’s 2022 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows Program selected three postdoctoral appointees, Magi Mettry, Johanna Schwartz, and Dane Sterbentz, to attend the 71st annual Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting in Germany. The Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting is an international scientific forum that provides a unique opportunity for about 600 students and postdocs from around the world to meet with 30 to 40 Nobel laureates.
Brooke Buddemeier has been named to the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements’ board of directors.
Tony Baylis was honored by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society as the 2021 recipient of their Government Partner Service Award.
Kathy Brown, who volunteers with the Civil Air Patrol, received a certificate of recognition and a ribbon with a silver star for her lifesaving role in rescuing an injured woman.
