Major Scientific Awards

This page lists major scientific awards received since 2007 for work conducted at LLNL.

Nobel Prize

2007

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and to former U.S. Vice President Al Gore for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about manmade climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change. More than 40 LLNL employees were key scientific contributors to the IPCC work that was cited by the Nobel Committee, primarily scientists with LLNL's Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison.

National Medal of Science

2009

Berni Alder. Retired LLNL physicist Berni Alder received this honor "for establishing powerful computer methods useful for molecular dynamics simulations, conceiving and executing experimental shock-wave simulations to obtain properties of fluids and solids at very high pressures, and developing Monte Carlo methods for calculating the properties of matter from first principles, all of which contributed to major achievements in the science of condensed matter."

Gordon Bell Prizes

2007

The 2007 Gordon Bell Prize was awarded in recognition of a "first-of-a-kind simulation of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability in molten metals on BlueGene/L." The winning entry, entitled "Extending Stability Beyond CPU Millennium: A Micron-Scale Simulation of Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability," was submitted by a team led by LLNL's Fred Streitz. The team included Jim Glosli, Kyle Caspersen, David Richards, and Robert Rudd from the Laboratory and John Gunnels of IBM.

Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers

2011

Heather Whitley. For her work using path-integral Monte Carlo techniques to produce very accurate quantum statistical potentials for use in molecular dynamic codes, for applying these methods to first-principles understanding of thermal conductivity in ignition capsules for the National Ignition Facility, and for service to the laboratory Postdoctoral Association.

Jeffrey Banks. For his work in computational physics, scientific computation, and numerical analysis, especially pioneering contributions in numerical approximations to hyperbolic partial differential equations focusing on the development and analysis of nonlinear and high-resolution finite-volume and finite-difference methods, and for service in high schools and the scientific community.

2010

Tina Chow. For fundamental research on the simulation of atmospheric turbulence, which has wide-ranging applications, including the dispersal of plumes resulting from atmospheric releases of radioactive or toxic material and the accurate simulation of wind fields for weather prediction.

Gang Logan Liu. For collaborative development of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy techniques for a variety of national security applications ranging from measuring the long-term health of the U.S. nuclear stockpile to biodetection.

Greg Bronevetsky. For innovative, cutting-edge research using statistical models to predict the effects of system faults leading to the development of new software tools and more reliable applications and supercomputer systems, and for his strong track record of professional service and leadership.

2009

Gianluca Iaccarino. For his extensive and deep scientific contributions in the areas of turbulent flow and uncertainty quantifications and quantified margins of uncertainty, which are amplified for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) com­munity through his position of intellectual leadership at the NNSA Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program Cen­ter at Stanford.

2008

Lynford Goddard. For his innovative research in building high-speed chip-seal monolithic photonic systems that contribute to device design, modeling, and fabrication, as well as the characterization of novel semiconductor materials.

E. O. Lawrence Awards

2011

Thomas P. Guilderson. Biological and Environmental Sciences: For his ground-breaking radiocarbon measurements of corals, advancements in understanding the paleohistory of ocean currents and ocean processes revealing past climate variability, and the elucidation of how physical and biogeochemical oceanic processes affect the global carbon cycle.

2009

Omar Hurricane. National Security: For his scientific leadership to advance understanding in a long-standing nuclear weapons physics anomaly and his contribution to nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship.

National Nuclear Security Administration's Science and Technology Award

2012

Michel McCoy. His pioneering work in high-performance computing established Lawrence Livermore as a world-renowned supercomputing center. He was honored in 2012 with the first-ever National Nuclear Security Administration's Science and Technology Award.

Elections to the National Academy of Sciences

2011

Benjamin D. Santer. LLNL physicist and atmospheric scientistwas elected for his for his research in human-induced climate change.

2008

Claire E. Max. Long-time LLNL employee (now a professor of astronomy and astrophysics and director of the Center for Adaptive Optics at UC Santa Cruz).

Elections to the National Academy of Engineering

2009

Edward I. Moses was cited "for outstanding scientific and engineering leadership of the National Ignition Facility."

2007

John O. Hallquist. President of the Livermore Software Technology Corp. and former LLNL employee. Dr. Hallquist was cited "for the development of explicit nonlinear finite-element methods and their worldwide dissemination in the DYNA family of programs." Dr. Hallquist created the original code in the DYNA family (DYNA3D) and various successor codes while he was working on the LLNL weapons program.

Hans A. Bethe Prize

2007

James R. Wilson. Awarded the 2007 Hans A. Bethe Prize by the American Physical Society for "his work in nuclear astrophysics and numerical work on supernovae core collapse, neutrino transport, and shock propagation. His codes reenergized supernovae shocks and launched numerical relativity and magnetically driven jets."

John Dawson Award of Excellence in Plasma Physics

2012

A team led by LLNL researchers was selected "for predicting and demonstrating the technique of laser scatter on self-generated plasma-optics gratings that enables generation and redirection of high-energy laser beams important for indirect drive inertial confinement fusion and high-power laser–matter interactions." The team comprised Robert Kirkwood (LLNL), Debra Callahan (LLNL), Laurent Divol (LLNL), George Kyrala (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Nathan Meezan (LLNL), and Pierre Michel (LLNL).

James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics

2007

John Lindl. "For 30 years of continuous plasma physics contributions in high-energy-density physics and inertial confinement fusion research and scientific management."

James B. Macelwane Medal

2010

David B. Lobell

2008

James Badro. Honored by the American Geophysical Union for "significant contributions to the geophysical sciences by a young scientist of outstanding ability." He did much of the work for which he was cited while at LLNL.

Edward Teller Award

2011

2009

Fusion Power Associates Awards

2011

Mike Dunne (Excellence in Fusion Engineering)

2010

Dmitri Ryutov (Distinguished Career Award)

Pravesh Patel (Excellence in Fusion Engineering)

Chris Keane (Special Awards)

2009

Jeffrey Latkowski (Excellence in Fusion Engineering)

2008

Edward Moses (Leadership Award)

Richard Post (Special Awards)

John Nuckolls (Special Awards)

Fulbright Distinguished Scholar

2009

Arthur J. Rodgers, Jr.

Panayot S. Vassilevski

Alameda County Women's Hall of Fame

2012

Dawn Shaughnessy. Under her leadership, a team of scientists has discovered six new elements on the periodic table - the heaviest elements found to date. She recently led a group that named the newest heavy element to be accepted into the periodic table — Livermorium — in honor of the Lab and its host city of Livermore. In addition to her research, Dawn thrives on getting young people interested in science. Her team recently received a $5,000 grant and donated it to the Livermore High School chemistry department. The gift grew from Dawn's memories of working in poorly equipped chemistry classes in high school.

2011

Crystal Jaing. A central player in developing an award-winning technology that will provide new tools to detect bioterrorism attacks, diagnose disease, and verify product safety. The technology, known as the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA), allows for the detection of any bacteria or virus on a tested sample within 24 hours. The technology relies on 388,000 tiny probes that fit in the middle of a one-by-three-inch glass slide. LLMDA has been evaluated for use by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and is the subject of interest from 15 companies worldwide examining the technology's potential as a product safety tool.

2010

Lisa Poyneer. An engineer at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who is instrumental in the development of the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), which will be the world's most powerful optical instrument of its kind once it is completed. The instrument will survey stars and take direct images of faraway planets about which little is known. Lisa's research was essential in winning the $24 million contract to pay for the GPI's development. Using algorithms she developed, the GPI promises a performance level that is up to 100 times greater than current instruments of its kind.

2009

Gina Bonanno. A senior technical manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Dr. Bonanno is a central player in one of the nation's biggest and most exciting scientific projects: the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The recently completed facility promises to open new avenues for exploring the power of fusion energy. The NIF uses 192 giant laser beams to demonstrate the fusion energy process that provides the life-giving energy of the sun. The experiments hold the hope of unlocking access to a never-ending source of clean energy. Since 2005, Gina has been Program Manager and Deputy Director of the National Ignition Campaign, the $1.6 billion program to demonstrate fusion ignition on the NIF. Gina is part of Lawrence Livermore's senior management team and is active in many of the Lab's community outreach efforts.

2008

Pam Hullinger. As a youngster growing up five blocks away from the Santa Anita Race Track, Pam dreamed of being a veterinarian. That dream led her to LLNL, where as the Laboratory's Chief Veterinary Officer she is a national leader in efforts to prevent the introduction and spread of foreign animal diseases. Pam's expertise brought her to the front lines of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Great Britain in 2001. She also played an important role in working to contain equine West Nile disease in California. At the Livermore lab, Pam has been closely involved in the development of a rapid test to detect foot-and-mouth and six other livestock diseases, which could save large numbers of animals and significantly reduce costs to U.S. agriculture.

2007

Hope Ishii. A researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who is one of a handful of scientists to get first crack of examining cosmic dust collected by NASA's Stardust mission. The particles collected by NASA's Stardust spacecraft hold the hope of unlocking mysteries about the origins of our solar system. Hope, a Pleasanton resident, earned a bachelor's degree in materials science and engineering from Cornell University, a master's degree in physics and engineering projects from Chalmers University Technology in Sweden, and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Stanford University.

R&D 100 Awards

Each year R&D Magazine selects their list of the 100 most technically significant new products and publishes them as their list of R&D 100 Awards. Entries come from private industry, government agencies, universities, and research institutes throughout the world. Winners are chosen by the magazine's editors together with a panel of experts chosen from a variety of relevant disciplines. Over the years, the R&D 100 Awards have been given to products such as Polacolor film (1963), the flashcube (1965), the automated teller machine (1973), the halogen lamp (1974), the fax machine (1975), the liquid crystal display (1980), the touch-sensitive screen and the color graphics printer (1986), the Kodak Photo DC (1991), the Nicoderm antismoking patch (1992), the digital compact cassette (1993), Taxol anticancer drug (1993), and the Power Beat automotive battery (1994), each of which went on to become outstanding commercial success stories.

In 2012, the Laboratory was honored with six R&D 100 Awards. These  new winners brings to 143 the total number of these prestigious awards won by LLNL. A complete listing of LLNL technologies that have received R&D 100 awards is published by IPO.