Dr. Jill Dahlburg has been selected to head the Naval Research Laboratory's Space Science Division. She has been acting in this position since May 2006 and was permanently appointed as a division superintendent on 9 December 2007.
The Division conducts a broad-spectrum RDT&E program in solar-terrestrial physics, astrophysics, upper/ middle atmospheric science, and astronomy. This research is important to orbital tracking, radio communications and navigation that affect the operation of ships and aircraft, utilization of the near-space and space environment of the Earth, and to the fundamental understanding of natural radiation and geophysical phenomena.
Dr. Dahlburg began her career at NRL in 1985, working as a research physicist. As a member of the NRL Nike KrF Laser Program from its inception, and Head of the Laser Plasma Hydrodynamics Section for that program, she contributed to laser matter interaction research, implosion and coronal hydrodynamics, and laser beam imprinting. Her work included spearheading the development of the first three-dimensional multi-group radiation transport hydro-code appropriate for laser-plasma modeling.
In 2000, Dr. Dahlburg served as head of the Tactical Electronic Warfare's Distributed Sensor Tech Office, where she co-proposed and was co-principal investigator for Dragon Eye during its first year of development. Dragon Eye is a small and inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicle that can be carried in a backpack. It can be configured with various day and night vision cameras, chemical and biological sensors, and other payloads.
From 2001 to mid-2003, Dr. Dahlburg left NRL to work for General Atomics as the Director of the Division of Inertial Fusion Technology (IFT) and co-director of the Theory and Computing Center in the Energy Group. Her IFT activities included target and component fabrication for inertial confinement fusion research; mass production techniques development for inertial fusion energy; cryogenics and target injection systems development; high intensity laser matter interaction research; hydrogen production; and, sources of iodine for high power gas lasers.
Dr. Dahlburg returned to NRL as the Senior Scientist for Science Applications. Her duties included reviewing NRL's S&T program directions; evaluating NRL and NRL-relevant S&T for application to Department of Defense (DoD0 mission needs; and, facilitating/expediting the accomplishment of the scientific missions of organizations within NRL, with emphasis on interdisciplinary areas of opportunity.
Dr. Dahlburg holds a B.A. from Saint John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, an M.S. in Physics and a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She has also served as a member of the research staff of Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, 1986, and in 1996 she was a Visiting Scientist at Imperial College in London, concurrent with her duties at NRL.
Dr Dahlburg's technical collaborations have included scientists in both the national and international physics and engineering communities. She has served on numerous review and other committees for the DoD, the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Research Council, the National Science Foundation, the American Physical Society (APS), and the DOE National Laboratories. She is Chair of the Department of the Navy Space Experiments Review Board (DON SERB) from 2006. She is Chair of the DOE Office of Science (SC) Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee, and has been a member of the DOE SC Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee since 1999. She was a member of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Defense and Nuclear Technologies Director's Review Committee from 2001 to 2007. She was 2005 Chair of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, and a member of the APS Nominating Committee (2003-2005). She served as Divisional Associate Editor (Plasma Physics) for The Physical Review Letters (1996-2000), and as an Editor of Fusion Engineering & Design (2003-2007).
Dr. Dahlburg's professional honors include six NRL Alan Berman Research Publication Awards for scientific publication excellence, and being named APS Centennial Speaker (1998-99) and APS/ DPP Distinguished Lecturer (1999-00). She is a member of the American Geophysical Union and a Fellow of the APS.
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