Abstract: The repeated achievement of ignition on the National Ignition Facility (NIF) was the first major hurdle in efficiently harvesting fusion energy through inertial fusion energy (IFE). To make IFE commercially viable, however, there are still significant scientific, engineering, workforce, and economic hurdles. This talk will review the advancements that made the ignition breakthrough possible, provide an overview of the national and international IFE landscape, describe the remaining gaps and challenges that must be solved to realize IFE, and present progress on the integrated national plan to track and guide IFE development.
Bio: Lead, Inertial Fusion Energy Initiative; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Dr. Tammy Ma is the Lead for the Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) Initiative at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Tammy received her B.S. from Caltech, then M.S. and Ph.D. from UC San Diego. She was a member of the team that achieved fusion ignition in December 2022 at the National Ignition Facility, demonstrating more energy from fusion than the laser energy used to drive it. Tammy currently sits on the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC), providing advice to DOE’s Office of Science on issues related to fusion energy and plasma research. She was a co-author of the 2021 FESAC Long-Range Plan, chaired the 2022 DOE IFE Basic Research Needs study, and is vice-chair for the 2024 FESAC Decadal Plan Subcommittee. She has authored or co-authored over 200 journal publications, and is the recipient of multiple honors including the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Engineering (PECASE), the DOE Early Career Award, and the APS Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions. In 2017 she was appointed a Young Scientist of the World Economic Forum, and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Tammy has written for Scientific American, has been featured on 60 Minutes, and in 2024 delivered a TED talk on the potential of fusion energy.
