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With recently awarded funding, LLNL will develop quantum and machine learning-accelerated software tools and apply them to discovering ultra-strong, lightweight magnets that are crucial for electronic motors, generators and high-performance information technology.
// S&T Highlights

LLNL to harness quantum computing for next-generation magnets

LLNL has been selected to lead a project that will receive $4.1 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) as part of the Quantum Computing for Computational Chemistry (QC3) program.
Adding an optimized void structure (top right) counteracts a shockwave-induced instability, reducing jetting (bottom right) that can interfere with inertial confinement fusion. Without this void, significant jetting occurs (bottom left).
// S&T Highlights

Looking into the void to cancel out material instabilities

Researchers from LLNL, Imperial College London and their collaborators used AI to optimize and 3D printing to create a target that effectively negates the RM instability.
Wren Carr, a new SPIE Fellow, has dedicated his career to optics at the National Ignition Facility. (Photo: Blaise Douros/LLNL)
// Recognition

LLNL optics expert Wren Carr named SPIE Fellow

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Wren Carr was recently selected as a Fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.
illustration of genetically engineered metabolic pathways in yeast to consume sugar and produce oxalic acid
// S&T Highlights

Engineered yeast produce acids needed to refine rare-earth elements

Researchers from LLNL, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the University of Kentucky established a novel microbial platform that produces oxalic acid and purifies rare-earth elements.
collage of DMTS winners
// Director's Awards

LLNL honors 36 as 2026 Distinguished Members of Technical Staff 

Thirty-six Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have been named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff (DMTS) in recognition of their extraordinary scientific and technical contributions, as affirmed by their professional peers and the broader scientific community.
group shot of ALS team
// S&T Highlights

LLNL-led study uses machine learning, veterans’ health records to identify ALS …

A LLNL-led team of scientists and computational engineers has identified several existing medications that may be associated with longer survival in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), using one of the largest electronic health record datasets ever assembled for ALS.
LLNL and Meta partner to hasten materials discovery with artificial intelligence.
// S&T Highlights

LLNL, Meta co-develop groundbreaking polymer-chemistry dataset for training AI …

In a recent paper, an LLNL team and collaborators detail Open Polymers 2026 (OPoly26) — a dataset with an unprecedented number and diversity of polymer structures with corresponding simulations performed at quantum accuracy. 

LLNL biologist James Thissen loads DNA samples for sequencing in a pathogen-agnostic method to identify respiratory viruses.
// S&T Highlights

Pathogen-agnostic testing reveals hidden respiratory threats in negative samples

In a recent study, LLNL researchers and the California Department of Public Health identified other potentially harmful respiratory viruses in samples that tested negative in a standard, NAAT-based panel. 

Shaun Kerr and Dean Rusby have refined the MeV X-ray generation of NIF’s Advanced Radiographic Capability, leading to unprecedented imaging of dense materials.
// S&T Highlights

Advanced Radiographic Capability achievements featured in Physics of Plasmas

LLNL's National Ignition Facility is the hottest place on earth for the briefest of moments during an experiment, as explained in a new paper in Physics of Plasmas. 

Schematic showing the setup for ion transport through a MXene membrane. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) discovered that applying an electric field to the gate can change the efficiency of the molecular transport through the membrane.
// S&T Highlights

Transistor-like membranes enhance ion separation

By applying voltage to electrically control a new “transistor” membrane, LLNL researchers achieved real-time tuning of ion separations.