Acknowledging exception performance, service, and expertise
The recognition by the scientific community and other stakeholders affirms the high quality of Livermore’s work and innovative spirit. The awards on this page showcase the efforts of the Laboratory’s talented staff.
Governmental Agency Awards
Physicist Daniel Casey and chemist Gauthier Deblonde are among the 93 awardees who received a 2023 DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program Award. Typical awards for DOE national laboratory staff are $500,000 per year for five years.
Several hundred LLNL employees, participating in five project teams, earned DOE Secretary’s Honor Awards for work done in 2022. The awards are DOE’s highest internal recognition for service to the department and the nation (e.g., see Global Security).
Hannah Farquar and Roger Werne of the Innovation and Partnerships Office received the 2023 Best in Class for Innovative Technology Transfer Award and the DOE Office of Technology Transitions Director’s Award for developing the National Lab Accelerator Program, which supports successful technology commercialization.
Jon Benjamin received DOE’s Facility Management Contractor Small Business Program Manager of the Year Award for FY 2022. The award recognizes his significant contributions in the small business community and across the DOE complex.
Electrical engineer Vincent Riot is among those who received a special project management award from the DOE Office of Science for work done on the Legacy Survey of Space and Time camera for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile.
Teresa Bailey, Brent Blue, Elizabeth Wheeler, and Lance Kim were among 34 individuals representing all 17 DOE national laboratories that were honored as 2023 fellows in the Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program. The program brings together exceptional leaders to explore the complexities, challenges, and opportunities facing the national laboratory system and DOE.
Infrastructure and Operations Deputy Associate Director Harold Yeldell received the Patriotic Employer Award from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, in conjunction with the Department of Defense.
Professional Society Accolades
The American Physical Society announced Manyalibo “Ibo” Matthews and Frank Graziani as fellows in 2023. Matthews was distinguished for pioneering research in optimizing metal 3D printing and laser materials processing. Graziani was chosen for theoretical and computational contributions to the study of non-ideal plasmas, and for exceptional leadership in mentoring and educating the broader high-energy-density (HED) physics community.
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics named Chandrika Kamath as a fellow honoring exemplary work in data science for scientific and engineering applications.
Physicists Félicie Albert and Craig Siders have been elected as fellows of Optica (formerly OSA). Albert was selected for pioneering research on x-ray sources driven by laser-wakefield acceleration and leadership in LaserNetUS (see Science and Technology). Siders was selected for contributions to the research, application, and development of high-intensity lasers in both basic and applied sciences.
Staff scientists Alison Christopherson and Art Pak have been elected Kavli fellows of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Chief Technology Officer for Livermore Computing, Bronis R. de Supinski, was named as a 2022 fellow by the Association for Computing Machinery. He was recognized for contributions to the design of large-scale systems and their programming systems and software.
The American Society of Safety Professionals, San Francisco Chapter, awarded National Ignition Facility (NIF) operations manager Bruno Van Wonterghem the “Managers Who Get Safety” Award. Van Wonterghem was selected for his dedication to the safety of his employees and maintaining a proactive safety culture.
Science and Technology Awards
The European Cooperation in Science and Technology awarded Alex Zylstra the 2023 Edouard Fabre Prize for his exceptional contributions to the physics of laser-driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and laser-driven plasmas.
The Fusion Energy Division of the American Nuclear Society recognized Nino Landen as one of two recipients of the 2023 Edward Teller Award for his pioneering contributions to ICF and HED science and for his leadership in achieving ignition at NIF.
The American Institute for Chemical Engineering announced staff scientist Jeremy Feaster as one of its “35 Under 35” award winners for 2023, honoring Feaster for his outstanding contributions to the field and the chemical engineering community.
The Krell Institute awarded physicist Tammy Ma with its 2023 James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building and Communication in recognition of her outstanding contributions to and leadership in the fusion energy science community.
Special Honors
TIME named design physicist Andrea “Annie” Kritcher to its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Kritcher was honored for her role as principal designer on the December 2022 experiment at NIF that resulted in fusion ignition.
HPCwire recognized Livermore’s Deputy Associate Director for High Performance Computing (HPC) Terri Quinn among its “People to Watch” for 2023. The list recognizes HPC professionals who play leading roles in driving innovation within their chosen fields and make significant contributions to society.
The University of California President’s 2022 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows Program selected four postdoctoral appointees, Sijia Huang, Sarah Sandholtz, Sean Leonard, and Wonjin Choi, to attend the 72nd annual meeting in Germany. The international scientific forum provides an opportunity for about 600 international students and postdocs to engage with 30 to 40 Nobel laureates.
Daniel Schwalbe-Koda was named one of Forbes “30 Under 30” in 2023 for his work to develop new, low-cost, sustainable materials using large supercomputers to simulate formulas that have the highest probability of being synthesized in practice.
Laboratory Director Kimberly Budil was selected by Fast Company as one of the “Most Creative People in Business” for 2023. The annual list recognizes individuals making an impact in society via daring achievements in their chosen fields. Budil was selected for leading the team that achieved fusion ignition at NIF.
The Telly Awards, which honors excellence in video and television across all screens and platforms, recognized the Laboratory with five awards for two videos developed to announce the successful fusion ignition achievement and visualize how NIF experiments happen. Employees in the Technical Information Department and the Office of Strategic Communication collaborated on the winning projects.
