Quick Shot

Dr. Maria Gatu Johnson has been promoted to Principal Research Scientist (PRS) at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center. In close collaboration with LLE, she has been focusing on studying inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosions using nuclear diagnostic techniques. These techniques have been essential for guiding the ICF Program on OMEGA to record yields and at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to ignition and energy gain. She has also been studying stellar nucleosynthesis-relevant basic nuclear physics using the high-energy-density–plasma platform. As a result of Maria’s groundbreaking work, she has won numerous prestigious awards (Dawson, Weimer, NNSA-Secretary, and several Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory awards). She has also demonstrated excellent student and postdoc supervision, and has been the principal investigator on grants and on several experimental shot days on OMEGA and the NIF. In addition, she has served on the Omega Laser Facility Users Group Executive Committee (2017–2022); the High-Energy-Density Science Association Steering Committee (2017–2020) and Vice Chair for the High-Energy-Density Science Association Steering Committee (2019–2020); and the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics’ Women in Plasma Physics Committee (2018–2022). Very importantly, she has also been a mentor in the Association for Women in Science. It is for these sustained and influential contributions Maria was promoted to PRS at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center.