Laura Berzak Hopkins is associate laboratory director for strategy and deputy chief research officer. She joins PPPL from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where she was a plasma physicist and the associate program director (APD) for Integrated Weapon Science (IWS), where she led a portfolio of teams pursuing technical research efforts that build integrated modeling, simulation, and experimental platforms. As APD, she had responsibility over the development and implementation of a resource-loaded (staff and budget) strategic plan, and she actively cultivated a culture of open communication, positive team identity, and aligned program deliverables. She was Livermore’s deputy for assessment science to the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Office of Experimental Sciences, where she was part of the core group of multi-laboratory contributors shaping national priorities, strengthening alignment between NNSA and LLNL, and communicating opportunities and challenges for technical research directions, facility needs and international scientific diplomacy efforts. She was also the Livermore Weapon Survivability program Point of Contact to the NNSA, where she was responsible for shaping and communicating program priorities between LLNL and NNSA in the mission area of materials and system response to radiation environments. 

Berzak Hopkins' technical research includes more than 100 designed and executed experiments at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) and has focused on development of inertial confinement fusion laser-target designs with high efficiency, low gas-fill density hohlraums as well as enhanced target implosion symmetry control with laser pulse shaping; this laser-target platform became the foundation for the first successful ignition design. She was the design lead for the Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) High-Density Carbon (HDC) Integrated Experiments Campaign from 2016-2019 and achieved the NNSA alpha-heating milestone in 2017 with record NIF neutron yield and stagnation pressures. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications including: “Toward a burning plasma state using diamond ablator inertially confined fusion (ICF) implosions on the National Ignition Facility (NIF)” published in Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion; “First High-Convergence Cryogenic Implosion in a Near-Vacuum Hohlraum” published in Physical Review Letters; and “Resource Requirements and Proliferation Risks Associated with Small Modular Reactors” published in Nuclear Technology. She is also the recipient of two U.S. Secretary of Energy Honor Awards and four NNSA Defense Program’s Awards of Excellence for her technical contributions within ICF and Weapon Survivability.

Berzak Hopkins was the chair of LLNL’s High Energy Density Science Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Review Committee and serves or has served on additional institutional selection and review boards, including an invited member of Sandia National Laboratories Radiation Effects and High Energy Density Science (REHEDS) Research Foundation External Review Board. She was a selected member of the Livermore Guidestar team, which is defining Livermore’s multi-decadal strategic plan to support both near-term mission priorities as well as preparing the laboratory to meet the demands of an uncertain future.

Laura is passionate about forging connections between science, policy and politics. From 2010 to 2012, she pursued that passion as an American Physical Society (APS) Congressional Fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. In this role, she served as a scientific advisor, translating technical topics for members and their staff and supporting development of legislation for alternative energy investments. As a selected member of the Nuclear Scholars Initiative in 2011 through the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI), Center for Strategic and International and Studies (CSIS), she has researched international agreements on civilian nuclear cooperation and arms control and worked to broaden awareness of risks, limitations and benefits through presentations to congressional and non-governmental organization audiences. As a Livermore scientist, she continues work in the arms control arena as part of the National Security Leadership Program at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, including development of a series of metrics categorizing theoretical nuclear force postures to assess ability for effective extended deterrence. 

Berzak Hopkins prioritizes communication of the importance, excitement and applications of technical topics to a diverse range of audiences. In 2012, Berzak Hopkins was the recipient of an APS Public Outreach grant through which she built a science communication website “Why-Sci” that focused on sharing research to the public in an approachable manner and provided a venue for scientists to gain research communication experience. She has presented invited technical talks at European Physical Society and American Physical Society conferences as well as annually for Livermore’s summer scholars program, a program that connects graduate students with the national laboratory system and builds their experience for future careers in scientific research. From 2014 to 2020, she was an instructor at Livermore’s Fun With Science program, which brought elementary school students for day trip visits to the laboratory and included a basic science lecture and series of hands-on demonstrations. She regularly serves as a tour guide at the NIF, where she guides members of the general public and members of Congress through the facility, describing the hardware, infrastructure, and mission space to build understanding of NIF’s flagship-scale experimental capability. Berzak Hopkins also works with researchers from across the U.S. to prepare articles highlighting the intersection between technical research and areas of broad societal impact as the assistant editor for the APS Forum on Physics and Society quarterly publication.

Berzak Hopkins holds a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from Princeton University, where she was an NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellow. While at Princeton, she developed the system of magnetic diagnostics to deliver initial plasma start-up and was the chief tokamak operator for the Lithium Tokamak eXperiment (LTX) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Her undergraduate degree is from Dartmouth College with a double major in physics and chemistry.