LLNL physicist Hye-Sook Park has been awarded the Edward Teller Award for 2025 by the American Nuclear Society. The award recognizes her pioneering high-energy-density experimental work in high-pressure materials science, inertial confinement fusion and astrophysical collisionless shock generation, including the resulting particle acceleration and magnetic field generation.
"It is a tremendous honor to receive this award, and I am truly humbled by the recognition," Park said. "The journey to develop new high-energy-density experimental platforms has been both challenging and deeply rewarding. The process required countless hours of dedication, perseverance and, admittedly, many sleepless nights. Seeing these platforms reach maturity and now consistently produce outstanding scientific results is incredibly gratifying."
The high-energy-density experimental platforms are being used at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to study inertial confinement fusion to reduce undesired target capsule instabilities, material science to understand material properties in extreme high-pressure regimes and laboratory astrophysics to resolve particle acceleration mechanisms in collisionless shocks.
"This achievement represents not only my personal commitment and enthusiasm over the past two decades, but also the collective efforts of an extraordinary group of individuals," Park said. "I greatly appreciate my mentors, whose guidance has been invaluable; my coworkers, whose collaboration and support have been essential; the high-energy-density science community, whose shared passion drives innovation; and the entire NIF operational team, whose expertise and dedication have made this research possible."
Since joining LLNL in 1987, Park, a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff, has contributed flight experiments for the Strategic Defense Initiative, led gamma ray burst counterpart search experiments and pioneered radiography techniques using short-pulse lasers to probe thick, high-Z materials. Her research has validated material strength models under extreme conditions. Park is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and recipient of the Dawson Award (2020) and Landau-Spitz Award (2024).
The Edward Teller Award is awarded biennially and recognizes pioneering research and leadership in the use of high-intensity drivers (such as lasers, ion-particle beams or pulsed power) to produce unique high-density matter for scientific research and to conduct investigations of inertial fusion.
Siegfried Glenzer, director of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory's High Energy Density Science division, also received the 2025 Edward Teller Award. Park and Glenzer will receive their awards at the 13th International Conference on Inertial Fusion Sciences and Applications (IFSA 2025), held Sep. 14-19 in Tours, France.
