Louise Willingale

Last updated

Louise Willingale
Alma mater Imperial College London
Scientific career
Fields Laser physics, plasma physics
Institutions University of Michigan
Thesis Ion acceleration from high intensity laser plasma interactions: Measurements and applications  (2007)
Doctoral advisor Karl Krushelnick, Zulfikar Najmudin
Website willingale.engin.umich.edu

Louise Willingale is a laser physicist at the University of Michigan and associate director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) ZEUS facility.

Contents

Education

Willingale completed her undergraduate Physics degree (MSci) from Imperial College London in 2003 and stayed on to complete her PhD in 2007 with her thesis titled Ion acceleration from high intensity laser plasma interactions: Measurements and applications. [1] She was then a research assistant before moving to the University of Michigan to carry out postdoc studies. [2]

Career

Willingale is interested in experiments and numerical modeling of high intensity laser plasma interactions and laser-driven ion acceleration. She has made use of advancements in laser technology, mainly chirped pulse amplification which was developed by Gérard Mourou who shared the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics. [3]

Willingale has been successful at winning a range of funding as principal investigator and is a member of the Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, and IEEE. [2]

In 2016–17 Willingale was a senior lecturer at Lancaster University, before returning to the University of Michigan. [2] [4]

As of 2022, she is Associate Professor at the University of Michigan in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and associate director and co-principal investigator of the NSF Zetawatt-Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System (ZEUS) facility, [5] which will be the highest peak power laser in the US and one of the most powerful in the world. ZEUS is designed to have a maximum peak power of 3 petawatts but can simulate much higher powers by firing it at a high-energy electron beam travelling in the opposite direction. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] In 2022 she also became a Fellow of the American Physical Society. [11]

Awards and honours

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. ↑ Willingale, Louise (August 2007). Ion Acceleration from High Intensity Laser Plasma Interactions: Measurements and Applications (PDF) (Thesis). Imperial College London. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Louise Willingale Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). willingale.engin.umich.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  3. ↑ Hayley Hanway (26 June 2019). "Prof. Louise Willingale creates extreme plasma conditions using high-intensity laser pulses". Optics & Photonics logo. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "Louise Willingale – Research Portal | Lancaster University". www.research.lancs.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  5. ↑ "Investigators | ZEUS". NSF ZEUS Laser Facility Gérard Mourou Center for Ultrafast Optical Science. University of Michigan. Archived from the original on 21 April 2023. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  6. ↑ Nick Lavars (15 September 2022). "Scientists fire up the most powerful laser in the US". New Atlas. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  7. ↑ "Univ. of Michigan's ZEUS will be most powerful laser in US". Yahoo News. 14 September 2022. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  8. ↑ "Most powerful laser in the US to begin operations soon, supported by $18.5M from the NSF". University of Michigan News. 12 August 2021. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  9. ↑ Catharine June (23 August 2022). "ZEUS Joins International Community of Extreme Light Virtuosos". Electrical and Computer Engineering. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  10. ↑ "First light at the most powerful laser in the US". University of Michigan News. 14 September 2022. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  11. 1 2 "Louise Willingale elected Fellow of APS". Michigan AI Lab. 19 October 2022. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  12. ↑ "IOP-Culham Thesis Prize | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. 26 February 2008. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  13. ↑ "PhD Research Award". European Physical Society – Plasma Physics Division. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  14. ↑ Catharine June (12 March 2018). "Louise Willingale advancing scientific knowledge of plasmas". Electrical and Computer Engineering. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  15. ↑ "NSF Award Search: Award # 1751462 – CAREER: Relativistic Electron Driven Magnetic Reconnection". www.nsf.gov. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  16. ↑ "APS Fellow Archive". www.aps.org. Archived from the original on 9 May 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  17. ↑ Hayley Hanway (13 April 2022). "Louise Willingale named Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences". Electrical and Computer Engineering. University of Michigan. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
  18. ↑ "2023 EECS Outstanding Achievement Awards". RADLAB. University of Michigan. 27 March 2023. Archived from the original on 8 April 2023. Retrieved 8 April 2023.
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