Quick Shot

Several female scientists attending the NIF/JLF User Group Meeting 3–6 February 2019 at the Bella Rosa Event Center in Livermore, CA welcomed a surprise visit by the 2018 Nobel Laureate in Physics Professor Donna Strickland to orchestrate a photo-op to celebrate her achievement. Professor Strickland was joined by female representatives from over ten international institutions including Dr. Patricia Falcone, the Deputy Director for Science and Technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and Dr. Mingsheng Wei, the National Laser User Facility Manager at LLE. The represented institutions included scientists from General Atomics, Johns Hopkins University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, LLNL, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, San Diego, University of Michigan, and the Universität Rostock in Germany. The annual NIF/JLF User Group Meeting attracts over 180 participants from around the globe. The goal of the meeting is to describe the capabilities of the NIF and JLF to current and potential users and included presentations with highlights from recent experiments. NNSA provided travel support for students and postdoctoral researchers to attend the meeting. Dr. Kevin Fournier, Director of the NIF User Office, took note of the gathering of the female scientists, saying “it’s a testimonial to the strongly inclusive approach we try to take in our HEDP community.”