(November 2022) AccelNet Annual meeting
Prof. Willingale attended the National Science Foundation AccelNet Annual meeting in Alexandria, Virginia as part of the team representing the X-lites network.
(November 2022) OMEGA EP shot day
PhD student Hongmei Tang ran an OMEG EP shot day at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics to investigate direct laser acceleration of electrons and the secondary x-ray generation. PhD students Veronica Contreras (UM) and Yutong He (UCSD) were also collaborators at the shot day.
(November 2022) Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop
Prof. Willingale and PhD student Hongmei Tang attended the Advanced Accelerator Concepts workshop 2022 on Long Island, NY.
(October 2022) Fellow of the American Physical Society
Prof. Willingale has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society “For significant contributions to the experimental understanding of ion acceleration, electron acceleration and magnetic field dynamics resulting from relativistic laser plasma interactions.” Read the ECE web announcement.
(October 2022) APS DPP annual meeting
Dr. Brandon Russell, and PhD students Hongmei Tang, and Brendan Stassel attended and presented at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics in Spokane, Washington. Their presentations were on:
- GO08.00015 : The Effect of Laser Focusing Geometry on the Direct Laser Acceleration of Electrons
- JP11.00002 : Ultrafast electron probing of extreme magnetic fields
- NO08.00014 : Identifying Trends in Self-Induced Relativistic Transparency in Plasmas with Ultrafast High Intensity Laser Pulses
- TO06.00003 : Experimental study of semi-relativistic quasi-perpendicular shock formation
- UM09.00008 : Extreme magnetic field generation in ultra-intense laser solid interactions
(October 2022): LaserNetUS experiment
Brendan Stassel participates on an experiment to study ion acceleration on the newly commissioned BELLA target chamber 2 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CA.
26th September 2022: Brandon Russell’s thesis defense
Congratulations to Brandon on the successful defense of his PhD thesis!
(September 2022) First light experiments for ZEUS
The first user experiments, performed at a small fraction of the final power, have started on the NSF ZEUS user facility. Prof. Franklin Dollar and his team from UC Irvine. Press coverage in the by the Associated Press was published in a several places including the Washington Post and USA today and Phys.org.
(September 2022) Attended Golden Goose Awards
Gérard Mourou, founder of the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, was part of a team winning one of the 2022 Golden Goose Awards. The team won the award for the development of LASIK surgery, or “How a lab incident led to better eye surgery for millions of people“! Prof. Willingale was honored to attend the award ceremony to represent the University of Michigan and CUOS.
(September 2022) Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure
Prof. Willingale is promoted to Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, with tenure, in the College of Engineering.
(August 2022) 2022 LaserNetUS Users’ Meeting
PhD students Hongmei Tang and Brendan Stassel attend the 2022 LaserNetUS Users’ Meeting at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. Both present talked on their research.
(June 2022) Solar Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE) workshop
PhD student Brandon Russell attends the Solar Heliospheric and INterplanetary Environment (SHINE) workshop in Waikiki, HI on the island of Oahu.
(June 2022) OMEGA EP shot day
PhD student Hongmei Tang traveled to the Laboratory for Laser Energetics to PI her shot day on the OMEGA EP facility studying Direct Laser Acceleration of electrons for bright, directional radiation sources.
(June 2022) High Energy Density Summer School
Prof. Willingale taught a lecture on “Diagnosing High Energy Density Conditions” at the 2022 High Energy Density Summer School Foundations of High Energy Density Physics.
(May 2022) High Energy Density Laboratory Astrophysics (HEDLA) conference
Prof. Willingale and PhD student Brandon Russell presented their work at the 13th International Conference on High Energy Density Laboratory Astrophysics (HEDLA) 2022 conference in Lisbon, Portugal.
(May 2022) Board of Regents approve promotion
The University of Michigan Board of Regents approved Prof. Willingale’s promotion to Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Science, with tenure, in the College of Engineering effective 1st September 2022. (Huge thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey!)
(May 2022) Fourth Purdue Workshop on Relativistic Plasma Astrophysics
Prof. Willingale was extremely honored to be (almost) the only experimentalist to attend and present at the Fourth Purdue Workshop on Relativistic Plasma Astrophysics, Purdue University, May 9-11 2022.
(Apr 2022) 2022 Omega Laser User Group (OLUG) meeting
PhD student Hongmei Tang attended the 2022 OLUG meeting at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) and presented a poster on her experiments on the OMEGA EP laser facility.
(Apr 2022) Multi Petawatt Physics Prioritization (MP3) workshop
Prof. Willingale co-chaired the Multi Petawatt Physics Prioritization (MP3) workshop in Paris, France.
(Apr 2022) National Academy of Sciences’ 32nd annual Kavli Frontiers of Science symposium
Prof. Willingale was one of three speakers representing “High Power Lasers” at the National Academy of Sciences’ thirty-second annual Kavli Frontiers of Science symposium in Irvine, California. She presented a talk on “Laser Driven Magnetic Reconnection” and now has the honor of being a Kavli Fellow!
(Mar 2022) The ECLIPSE meeting 2022
Prof. Willingale presented a talk on “The 3-Petawatt ZEUS Laser Facility” at the National Science Foundation Ecosystem for Collaborative Leadership and Inclusive Innovation in Plasma Science and Engineering (ECLIPSE) meeting.
(Feb 2022) The 2022 Stewardship Science Academic Programs (SSAP) Symposium
Prof. Willingale, graduate student Hongmei Tang presented their work at the virtual SSAP meeting.
(Jan 2022) Physics of Plasmas Publication – Editors Pick
Measuring magnetic flux suppression in high-power laser-plasma interactions is published in Physics of Plasmas and selected as an Editors Pick.