Andrea Kritcher

Kritcher is a native of Traverse City, Michigan, and attended both Traverse City Central High School and Northwestern Michigan College before studying nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan.{{Cite web |title=TC Native Named One of TIME's 100 Most Influential People |url=https://www.traverseticker.com/news/tc-native-named-one-of-times-100-most-influential-people/ |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=The Ticker {{!}} Traverse City News & Events}}{{Cite web |title=June : 2022 Outstanding Alumni named : Northwestern Michigan College |url=https://www.nmc.edu/news/2022/06/oa-2022.html |access-date=2023-04-15 |website=www.nmc.edu}}{{Cite web |title=Alumni Notes |url=https://issuu.com/northwesternmichigancollege/docs/nexus-spring-2022/s/14551300 |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=issuu |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Day of the starmakers |url=https://www.foundingfuel.com/article/day-of-the-starmakers/ |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=Founding Fuel}} She moved to the University of California, Berkeley for graduate studies, where she earned a master's degree and doctorate in nuclear engineering. She spent summer 2004 at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on an internship.{{Cite web |title=Fusion of interests gives postdoc career focus |url=https://www.llnl.gov/news/fusion-interests-gives-postdoc-career-focus |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=www.llnl.gov |language=en}} Her first project involved analyzing data for the electron beam ion trap. Her doctoral research considered Thomson scattering from shocked compressed matter.{{Cite web |title=Ultrafast K-[alpha] Thomson scattering from shock compressed matter for use as a dense matter diagnostic {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/692224646 |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=www.worldcat.org |language=en}} She became a postdoctoral researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2009.{{Cite web |title=Two LLNL scientists selected as 2022 APS fellows |url=https://www.llnl.gov/news/two-llnl-scientists-selected-2022-aps-fellows |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=www.llnl.gov |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Nikolic |first=Rebecca J. |date=2011-05-23 |title=Science and Technology Review June 2011 |doi=10.2172/1122235 |osti=1122235 |url=https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1122235 |language=English}} Her postdoctoral research explored using X-rays to measure the properties of warm and hot dense matter (plasma), and measuring how nuclei interact with dense plasma. She made use of the LLNL Jupiter laser and the OMEGA laser at the University of Rochester.

Kritcher was made a permanent member of staff in the Weapons and Complex Integration's Design Physics Division of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 2012.

Kritcher works in nuclear engineering, with a particular focus on inertial confinement fusion,{{Cite web |title=Beaming with Excellence |url=https://str.llnl.gov/2022-04/koning |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=str.llnl.gov}} which looks to emulate the nuclear processes that take place in the sun by compressing and heating capsules full of thermonuclear fuel.{{Cite web |title=Annie Kritcher leads revolutionary nuclear fusion experiment |url=https://ners.engin.umich.edu/2021/09/15/annie-kritcher-leads-revolutionary-nuclear-fusion-experiment/ |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=ners.engin.umich.edu |language=en-US}} High energy beams (photons or electrons) bombard the outer layer of the capsule, which explodes outward and generates a reaction force that accelerates the remainder of the capsule toward the center. The explosion creates a shockwave that travels through the fuel target, resulting in sufficient heat and compression for the fusion to begin. These capsules contain heavy isotopes of hydrogen (typically deuterium and tritium). Kritcher designed Hybrid-E, a target capsule that includes a high density carbon capsule and a deuterium-tritium fill tube.{{Cite web |title=High-Laser-Energy Shot Puts NIF Back on Track Toward Ignition |url=https://lasers.llnl.gov/news/high-energy-shot-puts-nif-back-on-track-toward-ignition |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=lasers.llnl.gov}} The capsule is encased in a hohlraum that converts the incident laser light into x-rays. Kritcher said that it was challenging to design the hohlraum such that it generated a symmetric implosion of the capsule. This involved confining the size of the entrance holes to enhance the energy that is coupled into the system, and a structure that can systematically adjust the wavelength of each beam to balance the X-ray energy required to drive the capsule to implode. The Hybrid-E capsule enabled inertial confinement fusion able to produce more than a megajoule of fusion energy.{{Cite journal | doi=10.1063/5.0047841 | title=Achieving record hot spot energies with large HDC implosions on NIF in HYBRID-E | year=2021 | last1=Kritcher | first1=A. L. | last2=Zylstra | first2=A. B. | last3=Callahan | first3=D. A. | last4=Hurricane | first4=O. A. | last5=Weber | first5=C. | last6=Ralph | first6=J. | last7=Casey | first7=D. T. | last8=Pak | first8=A. | last9=Baker | first9=K. | last10=Bachmann | first10=B. | last11=Bhandarkar | first11=S. | last12=Biener | first12=J. | last13=Bionta | first13=R. | last14=Braun | first14=T. | last15=Bruhn | first15=M. | last16=Choate | first16=C. | last17=Clark | first17=D. | last18=Di Nicola | first18=J. M. | last19=Divol | first19=L. | last20=Doeppner | first20=T. | last21=Geppert-Kleinrath | first21=V. | last22=Haan | first22=S. | last23=Heebner | first23=J. | last24=Hernandez | first24=V. | last25=Hinkel | first25=D. | last26=Hohenberger | first26=M. | last27=Huang | first27=H. | last28=Kong | first28=C. | last29=Le Pape | first29=S. | last30=Mariscal | first30=D. | journal=Physics of Plasmas | volume=28 | issue=7 | page=072706 | osti=1818404 | s2cid=237731121 | display-authors=1 }}{{Cite web |last=Laboratory |first=SLAC National Accelerator |date=2020-08-16 |title=1.1 Million Joules of UV Laser Energy: Shedding Light on Stellar Evolution and "Cosmic Clocks" |url=https://scitechdaily.com/1-1-million-joules-of-uv-laser-energy-shedding-light-on-stellar-evolution-and-cosmic-clocks/ |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=SciTechDaily |language=en-us}} Hybrid-E represents the first time that it was possible to generate a burning plasma state that emits more energy than the energy required to initiate the fusion.{{Cite web |last=Behr |first=Peter |date=2022-01-27 |title=DOE lab achieves key milestone for fusion energy |url=https://www.eenews.net/articles/doe-lab-achieves-major-milestone-for-fusion-energy/ |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=E&E News |language=en-US}}

In 2022, Kritcher was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. Her citation read, “for leadership in integrated hohlraum design physics leading to the creation of the first laboratory burning and igniting fusion plasma.”{{Cite web |title=APS Fellow Archive |url=http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=www.aps.org |language=en}}

Kritcher went on to study the behavior of ions in inertial confinement fusion, showing that the energy of neutrons produced from a deuterium–tritium plasma recorded experimentally was higher than could be predicted from the hydrodynamics-informed algorithms that simulate inertial confinement implosions.{{Cite web |title=LLNL researchers observe that ions behave differently in fusion reactions |url=https://www.llnl.gov/news/llnl-researchers-observe-ions-behave-differently-fusion-reactions |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=www.llnl.gov |language=en}}

Kritcher was the designer of the December 5, 2022 experiment that achieved fusion breakeven at the National Ignition Facility.{{cite news|newspaper=Daily Cal|date=December 15, 2022|title=National Ignition Facility achieves nuclear energy breakthrough|author=Carolyn Yu|url=https://www.dailycal.org/2022/12/15/national-ignition-facility-achieves-nuclear-energy-breakthrough}}{{cite web|title=A shot for the ages: Fusion ignition breakthrough hailed as 'one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century'|publisher=Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory|date=December 14, 2022|website=Official website|url=https://www.llnl.gov/news/shot-ages-fusion-ignition-breakthrough-hailed-one-most-impressive-scientific-feats-21st}}

• 2021 Finalist for Physics Breakthrough of the Year{{Cite web |date=2021-12-07 |title=Physics World announces its finalists for the 2021 Breakthrough of the Year |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/physics-world-announces-its-finalists-for-the-2021-breakthrough-of-the-year/ |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=Physics World |language=en-GB}}
• 2022 Northwestern Michigan College Outstanding Alumni{{Cite web |title=NMC Names Its Outstanding Alumni Award Winners |url=https://www.traverseticker.com/news/nmc-names-its-outstanding-alumni-award-winners/ |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=The Ticker {{!}} Traverse City News & Events}}
• 2022 Falling Walls Winner in Physical Sciences{{Cite web |title=Andrea Kritcher {{!}} Falling Walls |url=https://falling-walls.com/people/andrea-kritcher/ |access-date=2022-12-10 |website=falling-walls.com |language=en-US}}
• 2022 Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society

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Category:Living people

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Category:American nuclear engineers

Category:University of Michigan alumni

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Category:Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory staff

Category:Fellows of the American Physical Society

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Category:Northwestern Michigan College

Category:People from Traverse City, Michigan

Category:Engineers from Michigan