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Industry Collaborations

On May 7, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Director Kim Budil, fourth from left, joined a public-private panel on AI for science, where she highlighted LLNL capabilities and AI focus areas, including the National Ignition Facility, El Capitan, high-fidelity modeling and simulation and advanced materials and manufacturing. (Photo: Jeremy Thomas)

LLNL showcases AI-enabled science, national security and energy innovation at AI+ Expo

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) leaders, scientists and engineers joined national voices at the Special Competitive Studies Project’s (SCSP) AI+ Expo May 7-9 in Washington, D.C., highlighting how AI is reshaping science, security and energy innovation. The public Expo brought together government, industry, academic and Department of Energy (DOE) national…

LLNL’s advanced optics system for Ocula, featuring the Lab’s state-of-the-art monolithic telescope, will capture high-resolution ultraviolet and visible images of the lunar surface onboard Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit. (Photographer: Gary McLeod)

LLNL optics system set to fly to the moon with Firefly Aerospace for Ocula imaging service

A team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently delivered a high-resolution optics system to Firefly Aerospace in support of Firefly’s Ocula commercial lunar imaging service. The payload is scheduled to fly onboard Firefly’s Elytra spacecraft in lunar orbit as part of Blue Ghost Mission 2, targeted to launch no earlier than late 2026. The…

LLNL’s Innovation and Partnerships Office and the rare-earth element biomining research team

LLNL researchers, partnerships office earn technology transfer awards

The Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) has recognized the commercialization efforts of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)’s researchers and Innovation and Partnerships Office (IPO) for the mission innovation impact of two Lab-developed technologies through a 2026 award and an honorable mention. IPO’s Business Development Executive (BDE) Yash Vaishnav and…

LLNL teams attended the Energy I-Corps Cohort 22 kick-off in Colorado March 16-20, 2026. Pictured from left to right: Ryan Muir, Leily Kiani, Candice Bila, Clint Frye, and Qinghui Shao.(Credit: Kira Voss)

Two LLNL teams attend DOE’s Energy I-Corps Cohort 22

Continuing a decade of entrepreneurial training and commercializing mission innovation, two teams of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers attended the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy I-Corps (EIC) Cohort 22 in Colorado this spring. The EIC is a key initiative of the DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC). Candice Bila from the…

HPC4 Energy Innovation

DOE opens new HPC4EI call to connect US manufacturers with national-lab supercomputing

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has opened a new call for proposals under the High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) program, a national initiative managed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) that connects U.S. manufacturers with the computing power and scientific expertise of DOE’s national laboratories. The program invites companies to…

The AVLIS program began at LLNL in 1973 and was suspended in 1999. Now, the technology is being revived to create a domestic process for enriching lithium and fuel an energy-resilient nation.

Revitalized laser technology captures commercialization grant

Small, modular nuclear fission reactors and fusion facilities could each be the future of resilient and secure energy in the U.S. and around the world. But these technologies rely on isotopes of lithium to cool fission reactors and create fusion fuel. Currently, there is no sustained, domestic production mechanism for lithium isotopes in the U.S. that meets projected…

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory leaders and researchers accept the 2026 Manufacturer of the Year award in the large manufacturer category from the Association of Manufacturers Bay Area (AMBayArea) on April 21, recognizing the Lab’s leadership in advanced manufacturing, engineering and national security innovation. Pictured (l-r) are LLNL Materials Engineering Division Leader Chris Spadaccini, robotics engineer Mason Sage, Government & Industry Relations Senior Advisor Yuvaraj Sivalingam and Director

LLNL named 2026 Manufacturer of the Year by AMBayArea

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has been named the 2026 Manufacturer of the Year in the large manufacturer category by the Association of Manufacturers Bay Area (AMBayArea), recognizing the Lab’s leadership in advanced manufacturing, engineering and national security innovation. The award was announced April 21 during the AMBayArea Summit at the Chabot Space …

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. (Image: Janelle Cataldo / LLNL)

LLNL to harness quantum computing for next-generation magnets

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (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. QC3 seeks to develop and apply quantum algorithms to accelerate simulations of chemistry…

Big Ideas Lab podcast is marking a new milestone with the release of its 50th episode

All 50 episodes of the Big Ideas Lab now available on LLNL podcast page

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s (LLNL) Big Ideas Lab podcast marks a new milestone with the release of its 50th episode. The latest episode, delving into high-performance computing for energy innovation, can be found alongside the entire series on the new LLNL podcast page. Since its debut in September 2024, the Big Ideas Lab has aimed to rethink how science…

Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are partnering with San Francisco Bay Area fusion energy startup Inertia Enterprises Inc. to advance fusion laser technology

LLNL partners with Inertia to develop fusion energy technology

Scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are partnering with San Francisco Bay Area fusion energy startup Inertia Enterprises Inc. to advance fusion laser technology, as well as inertial fusion target manufacturing and designs. This collaboration is an expansive and integrated private sector-led partnership, unique in the history of LLNL and the DOE…

Artist’s depiction of NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft exploring the icy, hydrocarbon-rich landscapes of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. (Courtesy image: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)

LLNL delivers advanced gamma-ray spectrometer for NASA’s Dragonfly mission to explore Titan

Hundreds of millions of miles away from Earth, the landscape of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, bears a striking resemblance to our own planet — but with dunes of hydrocarbon sands rather than silica sands, and rain, rivers, lakes and seas of liquid methane and ethane rather than liquid water. The NASA Dragonfly mission is set to explore this world in unprecedented detail…

LLNL scientists Bassem El Dasher and Wayne Miller (center) celebrate LIFT’s 2026 East Bay Innovation Award with presenters Jennifer Torai with Stanford Health Care (far left) and Ken Maxey with Comcast (far right). Photo by Malcolm Wallace Images.

Livermore Institute for Fusion Technology honored for innovation

The East Bay Economic Development Alliance (EDA) honored Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)’s Livermore Institute for Fusion Technology (LIFT) with a 2026 East Bay Innovation Award. Livermore Mayor John Marchand nominated LIFT for the award in the Catalyst Category. LLNL scientists Bassem El Dasher and Wayne Miller accepted the award on behalf of the entire LIFT…

The latest Big Ideas Lab episode examines the how the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory-managed High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation program is translating advanced computing into measurable impact for U.S. industry and expanding what’s possible for American manufacturing, Listen on Apple or Spotify.

Big Ideas Lab explores how HPC for Energy Innovation advances U.S. industry

Some of the toughest challenges in American manufacturing are being solved without ever stepping onto a factory floor. Inside supercomputers, scientists are modeling systems too complex, costly or time-consuming to test in the real world. In the latest episode of the Big Ideas Lab podcast, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) spotlights the High-Performance…

Big Ideas Lab energetic materials podcast graphic

Big Ideas Lab podcast explores energetic materials and the science behind explosive performance

In less than a millionth of a second, a high explosive can release its energy, generating pressures and temperatures that push materials to their limits. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), scientists in the Energetic Materials Center (EMC) study these extreme conditions using experiments, computation and specialized facilities. The latest episode of the Big…

Big Ideas Lab NIF target fabrication

Big Ideas Lab podcast zooms in on tiny targets

At the end of an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiment at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), the target, measuring just two centimeters, is mostly obliterated. The gold plating, the high-density carbon and months of meticulous assembly vanish in an instant. That’s the point. In that flash, the target becomes what NIF is built…

In a pioneering partnership to accelerate materials discovery with AI, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Meta have created the world’s largest open dataset of atomistic polymer chemistry

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

Polymers are fundamental to our daily lives, serving as the core components for a wide array of goods, including clothing, packaging, transportation infrastructure, construction materials and electronics. Advances in polymer science open pathways for recycling and upcycling waste materials into more valuable chemical feedstocks. They also can have an outsized environmental…

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. Photo by Blaise Douros.

Advanced Radiographic Capability achievements featured in Physics of Plasmas

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the hottest place on earth for the briefest of moments during an experiment. Now, it can be one of the brightest places thanks to the Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC), NIF’s laser-within-the-laser. How this is possible and how it’s measured is detailed in the cover paper of the December 2025…

On Thursday Jan. 15, LLNL’s Global Security Directorate hosted an Energy Scale-up Brainstorming Day.

LLNL’s energy scale-up brainstorming event focused on accelerating pilot-ready technologies

Solving tomorrow’s challenges in energy security requires scientists to develop new pathways to streamline innovation. To help achieve this goal, the Global Security Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) recently hosted an “Energy Scale-up Brainstorming Day.” More than 60 researchers across a broad range of expertise gathered to engage in interactive…

Mark Henesian (left) and Brent Stuart (right) working on laser systems at LLNL.

Two LLNL scientists elected as 2026 Optica fellows

Optica recently elected 121 members from 23 countries to the society’s 2026 fellow class. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists Mark Henesian and Brent Stuart were among those honored by the scientific society. Optica fellows are selected based on outstanding contributions to research, business, education, engineering and service to Optica and the optics…

The Pandora team with engineering hardware for the telescope

Pandora mission demonstrates new model for low-cost, high-impact science

On Monday, Jan. 12, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), in partnership with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and Blue Canyon Technologies, announced the successful launch of the Pandora satellite into Earth’s orbit, initiating a yearlong mission to advance atmospheric characterization of planets beyond our solar system, also known as exoplanets. Pandora…