ECE Seminar: Kevin Fournier
Thursday, October 13, 2022
3:30-4:30 p.m.
Kevin Fournier
User Office Director, National Ignition Facility
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
"The National Ignition Facility and the Pursuit of Ignition"
McClelland 123 | Zoom link
Summary
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a 192-beam laser facility located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The NIF is the world’s largest and highest-energy laser facility and supports users from the U.S. national security community and academic users from around the world. The NIF offers users extraordinarily flexibility in designing high-energy-density (HED) experiments and exquisite precision in delivery of requested energy and power. The facility offers users a suite of x-ray, optical and nuclear target diagnostics. The baseline mission of the facility is to support the U.S. Stockpile Stewardship Program that comprises non-ignition HED experiments and inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. Researchers use the NIF to probe the physics of high-temperature plasmas, the material properties of elements across the periodic table at gigabar pressures and enormous strain rates, and the physical phenomena and processes in supernovae, galactic-scale magnetic dynamos, and the cores of super-earth planets. In this talk, Dr. Fournier introduce the facility and some of its key capabilities for performing and diagnosing HED experiments. He will then discuss progress in the nation’s ICF program including a recent result that puts the facility on the threshold of thermonuclear ignition.
Bio
Kevin Fournier is the User Office Director at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL); he is responsible for all aspects of successful fielding of cutting edge high-energy-density experiments at the facility, including soliciting and evaluating proposals for the highest scientific quality experiments, scheduling experiments to use the facility optimally, helping experimental teams design their experiments to the facility’s capabilities, managing the facility’s review process for experimental readiness, and planning strategically for new facility capability. Dr. Fournier manages all communication to the constituencies that are the major users of the facility including the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Stockpile Stewardship Program users, the international academic community that participates through the NIF’s Discovery Science program, and other federal agencies that perform experiments under the National Security Applications program. Prior to leading the User Office, Dr. Fournier ran LLNL’s National Security Applications Program and implemented radiation effects testing plans for several DoD agencies at the NIF and elsewhere. Dr. Fournier received his BS degrees from Duke University in physics and mathematics, and his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in atomic physics and spectroscopy. Dr. Fournier is an experienced researcher who has led experimental campaigns and computational collaborations at facilities around the world.