The Early and Mid-Career Recognition (EMCR) Program recognizes scientific and technical accomplishments, leadership and future promise demonstrated by LLNL scientists and engineers early in their careers — between four and 16 years since they received their most recent degree. Winners receive a cash award and institutional funding (approximately equivalent to 20 percent support for one year) to pursue research activities in their area of interest.
4–10 Year Cohort:
William Farmer
A Livermore Scholar in 2012, William Farmer earned his Ph.D. in physics from UCLA in 2014, focusing on magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) stability of the snowflake divertor as part of the Fusion Science Program. He joined LLNL as a postdoc working for Weapons Physics and Design, developing a modern high-altitude extended mathematical programming (EMP) code. He’s been part of the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) program since 2016, contributing to hohlraum science through MHD modeling and EMP modeling. In January 2023, he was appointed a Design Physics Division group leader and focused hohlraum modeling team lead in the ICF program to enhance predictive capabilities of the Lab’s design codes for ICF and High Energy Density (HED) experiments.
“This is largely done by designing focused experiments to test specific pieces of physics and proposing improved models to the code teams to achieve better agreement between simulations and experiments,” Farmer said. “This type of work will be crucial to stockpile stewardship especially as we push to higher fusion gain at the National Ignition Facility.”
Farmer said he is humbled to receive this award and would like to use this money to fund a postdoc to further enhance the understanding of ICF and HED systems.
Anna Hiszpanski
Growing up in a family of engineers in Valencia, California, Anna Hiszpanski received a Ph.D. in chemical and materials engineering from Princeton in 2015 and came to the Lab afterwards for a postdoc. As the group leader of the Functional Materials Synthesis & Integration Group within Physical & Life Sciences (PLS) / Materials Science Division, she is also the principal investigator of projects related to machine learning for materials and optoelectronic and electromagnetic materials. Hiszpanski is excited to use her EMCR funding to push ahead research in pairing machine learning with automation and robotics for chemistry — which she says is a necessary step in realizing the promise of accelerating new materials development with machine learning.
“Much of the machine learning for materials work we do is in the digital domain, but at the end of the day, we still need physical materials, and it’s the actual making of materials that is oftentimes the bottleneck,” Hiszpanski said. “So being able to close-the-loop between the digital and physical domains and utilize machine learning to drive experiments in automated systems is a next-level research goal of mine.”
Andrew Horning
Raised in Washington State, Horning studied chemistry and comparative literature at USC and earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined LLNL in 2020 as an analyst in the Science and Technology Assessments group within Global Security, as the lead on advanced computing analysis. Horning values the innovative environment at LLNL and aims to explore new research areas and ways of thinking about emerging technologies with his EMCR award.
“Being at the Lab and getting to share in everyone’s enthusiasm for new science and novel applications is what keeps me motivated here, especially when that’s paired with a bias towards change and constant improvement,” Horning said.
He has a desire to foster connections with the Silicon Valley. “Being this close to Silicon Valley really makes us unique among all the other national labs, and I think we’re only beginning to tap into the broader community of people thinking about and advancing technology in the Bay Area,” he said. “I would love to find ways to grow our relationships with companies, researchers, and venture capital firms in the area.”
Bhavya Kailkhura
After a rewarding Lab summer internship where he had research freedom and diverse application space, Bhavya Kailkhura joined the Lab. He holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Syracuse University and currently works as a machine-learning research scientist. Freedom to do cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) research and the opportunity to apply this research across a wide range of impactful applications is what attracted Kailkhura to the Lab.
Kailkhura focuses on ensuring AI systems are safe and secure, which involves more than just technical fixes. It also requires addressing ethical, social and policy issues. “LLNL is deeply committed to this because we want to maximize innovation while minimizing risks,” he said. “The potential to shape the future of technology in a positive way provides a strong sense of purpose to me.”
Kailkhura plans to use his funding to collaborate with experts from diverse yet related fields such as AI policy and governance and to develop educational resources. He wants to elevate AI safety research to the next level with access to machines equipped with state-of-the-art GPUs.
Jiaqi Li
Before joining LLNL, Jiaqi Li served as a postdoc scholar at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He earned his Ph.D. in civil and environmental engineering from UC Berkeley in 2019, focused on the chemistry and multiscale structure of concrete. One fun fact is that concrete is the largest commodity in the world, just second to water.
Before being converted to a staff scientist, Jiaqi was a Lawrence Fellow at LLNL. He is the deputy center director of DOE-funded Energy Earthshot Research Center for coupled chemo-mechanics of cement in enhanced geothermal systems. Li studies industrial decarbonization, particularly in cement and concrete, carbon capture utilization and storage, and renewable energy. Li was drawn to the Lab through the Lawrence Fellowship which provided him with great opportunities to support disruptive research in cement and energy decarbonization and to initiate a new research program independently.
“The EMCR award is a great incentive to me to continue the research with real-world impacts on energy security and scientific significance,” he said noting it will support new hiring and for him to attend conferences to advance his research.
Tom Scogland
Tom Scogland received his Ph.D. in computer science from Virginia Tech in 2014. As a computer scientist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing, Scogland leads the Next Generation Computing Enablement (NGCE) project and research and scheduling lead of Flux. He focuses on improving computational science infrastructure. His research explores methods to program and schedule heterogeneous systems from the scale of a single node with RAJA or OpenMP to entire computer centers with Flux. He serves as the Accelerator Subcommittee chair of the OpenMP Language Committee and the LLNL representative on the C++ committee.
“My work focuses on improving our ability to get as much science done per researcher time and per machine we purchase,” Scogland said. “In the end, it's all about finding new ways to improve our ability to provide a world-class infrastructure for computational science.”
He feels honored to receive the EMCR recognition and credits his supportive colleagues. Scogland plans to use the funding to explore programming models, resource management, workflows and build systems and package management to enhance software development at LLNL.
11–16 Year Cohort:
Narek Gharibyan
Narek Gharibyan earned his Ph.D. in radiochemistry from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in 2011 and joined LLNL in 2012 as a postdoc focused on radiochemical measurements at the National Ignition Facility. He currently serves as the associate program leader for the Forensic Science Center/Technical Nuclear Forensics across Z and N programs in Global Security and is the deputy group leader for the Nuclear and Radiochemistry Group in the Nuclear and Chemical Sciences Division division in PLS.
His work in forensic analysis, both pre- and post-detonation, is vital to LLNL’s national security mission. Gharibyan wanted to join the Lab for the chance to tackle scientific problems of national interest while collaborating with leading experts in nuclear forensic analysis.
He expressed gratitude for the recognition, crediting he has been fortunate to do impactful work with amazing colleagues. “Doing science that matters motivates me,” he said, noting the rewarding opportunities at LLNL. He plans to use the award funding to enhance his forensic analysis expertise and explore new capabilities in radionuclear forensics.
Christopher Hahn
Christopher Hahn completed his Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 2012, focusing on bandgap engineering of nitride semiconductors for solar water splitting. He conducted postdoctoral research on catalyst development for electrochemical CO2 conversion at Stanford University before becoming a staff scientist at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in 2015. There, he led research in electrocatalysis and received the 2020 ECS Energy Technology Division Young Investigator Award.
In 2021, Hahn joined LLNL as the deputy group leader of the Materials for Energy and Climate Security Group, where he leads projects on CO2 electrolyzer scale-up, reactive carbon capture and biomass conversion. He also serves as deputy director of two centers focused on carbon capture and conversion (4C) and developing materials for energy applications (LEAF).
“My work aims to develop electrochemical energy conversion technologies that can decarbonize chemical manufacturing by using CO2 or biomass feedstocks and renewable electricity to sustainably produce carbon-based fuels and chemicals,” Hahn said, emphasizing its alignment with LLNL’s Climate and Energy Security mission. He was drawn to LLNL for its opportunities to build research programs bridging fundamental and applied research in electrochemical energy conversion.
Monica Moya
Monica Moya, a Los Angeles native and first-generation college student, earned her B.S. from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Before joining LLNL, she conducted postdoctoral research at UC Irvine as a National Institutes of Health Ruth Kirschstein–National Research Service Award Fellow.
Moya is a group leader in the Materials Engineering Division, overseeing the Bioengineering and Advanced Fabrication group. As a principal investigator and technical lead, she oversees projects on 3D bioprinting of vascularized human tissues, focusing on developing 3D models of cerebral vasculature to study COVID-19 and traumatic brain injuries. Her work enhances LLNL’s ability to detect and understand biological threats, supporting national security and public health.
She views the EMCR recognition as an honor that validates her research efforts and boosts visibility for her team and the Center for Bioengineering. Moya is motivated “by the challenge of addressing complex biological problems and advancing technologies that can improve health and quality of life.” She emphasizes the need for additional funding to enhance capabilities, the Lab’s facilities, and accelerate progress to achieve groundbreaking results.
Lacey Stewart
Lacey Stewart is the associate program leader for Missile and Space in the Z Program Science and Technology Assessments in Global Security. She leads a multidisciplinary team analyzing global missile and space technologies. Stewart joined LLNL in 2019 as a Z Program analyst, focusing on nuclear and missile-related counterproliferation. She provides science and technology informed intelligence analysis to senior policy and defense leaders.
With a decade of federal experience in D.C., she was drawn to LLNL’s integrated approach to national security challenges. “The way LLNL brings together technical teams with those who’ve worked across political science disciplines creates an exciting environment to find solutions,” Stewart said.
Stewart feels honored by the EMCR recognition and is eager to tackle evolving national security issues. “I’m excited to be able to take on new research that address evolving national security issues that are currently under-served from technical intelligence,” she added. She wishes the general public knew the breadth and persistence of the threats the Lab addresses on a daily basis and how the Lab’s science and technology solutions are critical for making the country safer.
Joel Varley
Joel Varley, born in Athens, Georgia, earned his B.S. in physics from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and his Ph.D. from UC Santa Barbara. After a postdoc in chemical engineering at Stanford, he joined LLNL as a postdoc in 2013.
As the deputy group leader in the Quantum Simulations Group in PLS / Materials Science Division (MSD), Varley focuses on energy security, particularly renewable energy and sustainable fuels. Although he didn’t know much about the Lab, he was initially drawn here by a project on solar cell improvement.
“The EMCR recognition is a true honor, since I know the quality of the people at the Lab and how standing out in such a crowd is not easy,” Varley said. He said this recognition will give him more flexibility to explore research topics he has not been able to pursue and incorporate more explicitly in his general research. Varley is motivated by the pursuit of knowledge and the desire to contribute to society, particularly in overcoming hurdles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Brian Wihl
Brian Wihl is the associate program leader for Autonomous Sensors within the Defense Systems Protection area. He coordinates technical development and provides strategic leadership for projects in sensor and algorithm development, unmanned system integration and collaborative autonomy for DOE, DOD and other federal partners.
Wihl joined LLNL in 2012. He was drawn to LLNL for its cutting-edge science and the practical application of technology for national and global benefit. Wihl is a technical leader in unmanned aerial systems and has led projects that leverage autonomous vehicles to enhance efficiency, safety and performance. Wihl is passionate about applying systems engineering practices and serves on the Engineering Directorate’s Systems Engineering Board, where he helps develop engineering standards and mentors system engineers.
“The Autonomous Sensors Program Area I lead develops sensor and unmanned system technologies that protect our warfighters, our borders, and our environment,” Wihl said. He plans to use the funding to develop concepts for unmanned sensor systems focused on wildfire early detection, monitoring, and mitigation.