Lead engineering teams in their quest to develop key enabling technologies for nuclear fusion experiments with the final goal to close the technological readiness gap for fusion energy.

Lead the development of cryogenic systems for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) as well as automated metrology systems for NIF target fabrication processes

My current task is to identify systems and processes which could become more efficient by employing robotics, automation, or computer vision / machine learning technologies, develop these technologies and field them into production.

As a target fabrication engineer, I am responsible for the on time delivery of design, documentation, procurement and assembly of targets for the National Ignition Facility. The challenge arises from the many stakeholders from different scientific disciplines, each of which interested in some aspect of the target design. In parallel to the production of targets it is important to constantly look for ways to improve efficiency as the different campaigns demand more targets and targets of increasing complexity.

As technical lead for design upgrades to the cryogenic target system, I am tasked with identifying and executing projects aimed at decreasing failure rate, improving serviceability, decrease turn-around time between shots or increase overall system performance. - Interfaced with multidisciplinary stakeholders to define requirements- Developed models to predict thermal and mechanical performance of conceptual ideas- Designed experiments to analyze expected sub-system performance and validate model predictions- Presented design proposals to stakeholders and upper management- Prepared test reports from experimental data and analytical results- Lead projects through all phases from conceptual design, prototype, procurement, assembly, test to deployment, including scheduling, budgeting, and work force management- Developed operational procedures and test plans combining design intent with feedback from the field or production lineMy main task as subject matter expert for the cryostat is to monitor the system’s performance and ensure its health as any delays have a significant impact on NIF’s overall mission to produce experimental data.- Assured that system reliably fulfills its requirements, including thermal performance, position stability, and other requirements from numerous interfacing systems. - Assessed system performance and compared to analytical and test results- Consulted operations and technical managers on questions regarding off-normal conditions- Served as a field engineer during the commissioning and start-up of the system to ensure smooth operation and on-site support including 24 hour on-call duty for fast troubleshoot and mitigation of problems- Reviewed and prepared safety documentation, failure mode and effect analyses (FMEA)- Provided hands-on as well as classroom training to help operations staff better understand the intricacies of the system. - Recognized possible design improvements as well as specifying system limitations

One of the many engineering challenges of building a rep-rated pulsed laser fusion power plant is the production of a large number of fuel capsules (1million pellets per day). Stringent requirements exist on the thickness uniformity of the frozen hydrogen fuel inside a ~4 mm diameter as well as on the outer surface damage on the outside of the pellet. A fluidized bed has been proposed as good candidate to provide the thermal environment for the mass production of inertial fusion energy fuel pellets. During this layering process, the frozen deuterium–tritium mixture filled into a hollow capsule is frozen at 19.7 K and then redistributed leading to a fuel layer of uniform thickness on the inside of the fuel capsule.Several physical processes have been identified to interact with each other to influence the outcome of the layering process in a fluidized bed. In my work as a grad student researcher, I developed and used numerical tools to conduct a trade-off study focusing on the influence of different flow conditions of the fluidizing gas on the total layering time, final layer uniformity and outer surface damage. Each of the numerical models needed to be validated against experimental and theoretical results before it could be applied in the trade-off study. Creative ideas were the key to designing simple experiments that would be both feasible in a laboratory environment as well as provide insightful data that the numerical results could get compared to. The work demanded a thorough understanding of the physics involved not only in the beta-layering process itself, but also in general heat- and mass transfer, fluid dynamics, granular flow, multi-phase flow, statistical methods, and the application and development of advanced numerical algorithms.

The High Average Power Laser (HAPL) program investigated the feasibility of using a rep-rated pulsed laser (5-10 Hz) to drive a continuous sequence of small thermonuclear explosions to power a fusion reactor. My study focused on the survival of cryogenic deuterium tritium targets during injection into an inertial fusion reactor chamber. It involved modeling of the cryogenic target (~18 K ) and assessing of its thermo-mechanical behavior including phase change during its flight time through the chamber when it is exposed to low density but high temperature gases. The work demanded a grasp of the operation and requirements of the different components and systems involved in an inertial fusion reactor as interfaces are very important. It also demands a good understanding in a broad range of disciplines, including heat and mass transfer, phase change, thermo-mechanics, material behavior and molecular fluid dynamics. The results from the advanced numerical simulation compared well with the accompanying experiments performed by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratories.