Quick Shot
Remembering David Eimerl
August 20, 2021
David Eimerl passed away at his home in Green Valley, California, surrounded by family, on July 31, 2020, after a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Born in England on Aug. 13, 1948, to Teviot Selwyn and Dulcie Guyda (Mounsey) Eimerl, David was a true renaissance man, gifted not only in physics and mathematics, but in languages and music as well. He attended Brasenose College at the University of Oxford, England, earning first-class honors (summa cum laude) in nuclear physics and obtained his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Following a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Diego, he joined the newly-formed Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where he worked on a variety of topics related to laser fusion. During his LLNL tenure, he led a team of researchers developing materials and advanced concepts for laser frequency conversion; he also served as a Program Leader and later as Chief Scientist for the Laser Science and Technology Program in the ICF Directorate.
After retiring from LLNL, he continued to work on laser fusion topics, and was a co-inventor of StarDriver, a completely new concept for commercial-scale laser-driven energy production. In 2001, he founded Eimex to provide computer modeling and consulting services in laser science, as well as expert witness testimony for laser injury and patent litigation. He published widely in the scientific literature, and held numerous laser-related patents. He also developed semiconductor and laser products for the telecom, computer electronics, wafer processing, and medical device industries.
A long-time Individual Affiliate of Fusion Power Associates, in December 2014 he and several co-authors presented the StarDriver concept at Fusion Power Associated 35th annual meeting. Mike Campbell, Director of the laser effort at the University of Rochester and co-author of the StarDriver concept paper said of David, “David was an outstanding and creative laser and optical scientist who made many contributions to the development and understanding of high power lasers used in ICF research. His contributions included nonlinear optics, innovative laser systems and architecture and the interaction of intense light with plasmas. David played a major role in the development and deployment of upconverting the fundamental Nd wavelength to the ultraviolet, which is now found in nearly every high power laser (OMEGA, NIF, LMJ, SGIII) used in ICF research. He was a pioneer in exploring techniques to increase the bandwidth for future ICF lasers, a task he was working on until a few weeks before his passing. As described in this obituary, David was a true renaissance man-from physics, music, to flying spitfires! I will miss his intellect and his friendship.”
David had a wide variety of passions. He was a classical and jazz pianist, singer and composer. He also played the bass guitar and, in his earlier years, performed with a rock band in England. He was a longtime member of a cappella groups, and performed for more than three decades, including once with the San Francisco Opera. A master scuba diver and avid hiker, he had a deep appreciation for the natural world. He loved long hikes and climbing the mountains in the Sierra Nevadas and Yosemite.
He served as a board member for The Solano Land Trust and the Green Valley Landowners Association. He was an accomplished horseman, and loved endurance rides on his horse, Rab. He also had a passion for aviation and spent hundreds of hours piloting small aircraft and performing acrobatics.
He is survived by his wife, Carol; daughter and son-in-law, Alyson and Kyle Charlet, and their children, Taylor and Dylan; son and daughter-in-law, Adrian and Lyndi Eimerl, and their children, Avery, Parke, and Peyton; son, Robert Eimerl; daughter, Elia Lundgren; sister and brother-in-law, Ann and Geoff Phillips; nephew, Simon Phillips and wife, Fedi, and their daughters, Carolina and Sofia; niece, Sarah Nixon-Teecey and husband, Adam, and their son, Elliott.
A celebration of life will be held at his home in Green Valley. Contributions in Eimerl’s memory can be sent to Solano Land Trust, 700 Main St. #210, Suisun City, California, 94585; Green Valley Landowners Association, 4160 Suisun Valley Road E240, Fairfield, California, 94534; or any charity of your choice.
Remembrances may be sent to his wife at
clundgren5@aol.com