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 these pages showcase the efforts of the Laboratory’s talented staff.
Department of Energy Awards
Seven LLNL scientists are among 93 awardees who received a 2024 DOE Office of Science Early Career Research Program Award. The award provides support to exceptional researchers during crucial early-career years, when many scientists do their most formative work. Typical awards for DOE national laboratory staff are $500,000 per year for five years.
Four project teams, including several hundred LLNL employees, earned the DOE Secretary’s Achievement Award in 2024 for their service above and beyond expectations and for contributions that have lasting impacts: the Exascale Computing Project Leadership Team, the Nimble Subcritical Experiments Team, the Space-Based Nuclear Detonation Detection Team, and the WESTWORLD Program Team.
NNSA presented the Ignition Team at NIF an Exceptional Achievement Award for work performed in 2023. Six other LLNL research teams were recognized with the Defense Program Award of Excellence.
Professional Society Accolades
The American Physical Society (APS) announced Raymond Smith, Daniel Casey, and Daniel Clark as fellows in 2024. Smith was distinguished for pioneering dynamic ramp-compression experiments at NIF. Casey was selected for outstanding contributions to understanding the impact of asymmetries on inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions. Clark was honored for extensive contributions for nearly a decade to ICF implosion modeling and target design.
Biologist Jennifer Pett-Ridge was selected as a fellow of the Ecological Society of America. Her work on soil ecology has led to breakthrough methods for identifying microbiological processes and the underlying systems biology of plants and microbes in response to climate change.
The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) elected LLNL computational mathematician Carol Woodward as president-elect and computational scientist Judy Hill as a council member for the organization. Woodward began serving as president in January 2025. Also, computational mathematician Ulrike Meier Yang was selected as a SIAM fellow, the society’s highest honor, for her pioneering work on numerical algorithms for parallel high-performance computing (HPC).
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers elevated LLNL researcher Bhavya Kailkhura to the grade of senior member, the organization’s highest status held by only 10 percent of its members.
Laser physicist Zhi Liao was elected as a senior member of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for his contributions to optics research and service to the optics community.
Researchers Paul Armstrong and Brent Stuart were named senior members of Optica for exemplary accomplishments in optics and photonics. Armstrong contributed to development of HAPLS (see Partnerships) and Stuart is operations manager of JLF (see Science and Technology).
Laser physicist Raspberry Simpson was named a Kavli fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and presented a poster at the annual NAS Kavli Frontiers in Science symposium.
Science and Technology Awards
Fusion Power Associates (FPA) presented their 2024 Distinguished Career Award to Bruno Van Wonterghem, NIF operations manager, “for his decades of tenacious dedication to scientific and operational excellence in bringing both the LLNL Beamlet and NIF facilities to completion and successful operations.” FPA also gave design physicist Andrea “Annie” Kritcher the 2024 David J. Rose Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award, as an early-career professional who demonstrates potential to become an influential leader in the fusion community.
Physicists Hye-Sook Park and George Swadling, along with Anna Grassi of Sorbonne University and former Lawrence Fellow Frederico Fiuza of Técnico Lisboa, received the 2024 Lev D. Landau and Lyman Spitzer Jr. Award for Outstanding Contributions to Plasma Physics. The international award was presented for critical advancement in the understanding of particle acceleration physics in astrophysically relevant shocks.
The Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on HPC awarded LLNL’s Kathryn Mohror with its prestigious Emerging Woman Leader in Technical Computing Award for her remarkable achievements and dedication to advancing the HPC community.
LLNL postdoctoral fellow Sam Hedges won a 2024 Springer Thesis Award for his work in searching for the elusive neutrino. His thesis highlights the development and analysis of multiple neutrino detectors deployed to the Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Special Honors
The University of California President’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows Program selected postdoctoral fellows Andrew Rowberg, Tomi Akindele, Tina Ebert, Raspberry Simpson, and Elizabeth Grace to attend the 73rd annual meeting in Germany. The meeting is a scientific forum that provides an opportunity for about 600 international students and postdocs to engage with 30 to 40 Nobel laureates.
HPCwire recognized computer scientists Todd Gamblin, a creator of Spack, as one of its “People to Watch” for 2024. The list recognizes HPC professionals who are leaders in driving innovation within their chosen fields and make significant contributions to society.
Physicist Tammy Ma, lead for the LLNL Inertial Fusion Energy Institutional Initiative, shared her vision for a fusion energy on the mainstage at the TED conference held in Vancouver, Canada. The talk that is publicly available.
Postdoctoral fellow Brian Zimmerman won first place in the National Security category of the inaugural National Lab Research Slam. He also won the People’s Choice award at the event.
For the second year in a row, Laboratory Director Kimberly Budil was named to the “Power 100” list by the San Francisco Business Times, highlighting the top business leaders in the Bay Area.
LLNL honored a unique cohort of employees, those that have worked at the Laboratory for more than 50 years: David Bailey, Paul Breitenbucher, George Chapline, Leslie Carman, Pat Grant, Gordon Guenterberg, Judy Harte, Jim Hammer, Jerry Johnson, Joanne Levatin, John Lindl, Ken Manes, John Nuckolls, Mark Rotter, Barbara Sherohman, Bob Sherwood, Don Smith, Clark Souers, Wigbert Siekhaus, Linda Thorne, and George Zimmerman.
