Andrea “Annie” Kritcher

Dr. Annie Kritcher is the integrated modeling team lead in the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) program and lead designer on experiments producing a record 5.2 MJ of fusion energy and first ever fusion target gain in the laboratory.  Annie is also group lead within strategic deterrence.  Her group pioneers the creation of extreme states of matter through igniting fusion plasmas that were previously not accessible in the laboratory, relevant for fusion energy, laboratory astrophysics, and stockpile stewardship.  She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and her B.S. from Nuclear Engineering at the University of Michigan.  Annie has co-authored been cited > 7800 timeswith an h-index of 52 and first author papers in both Nature and Science.  Annie was awarded the named Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellowship and is a recipient of the John Dawson award for her design of a burning plasma.  Annie became a fellow of the APS for design of the first ever fusion ignition and target gain experiment and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.  Annie was also named one of Nature’s ten list of people who made a significant impact in science in 2023.  

Featured Publications:

1. Design of the first fusion experiment to achieve target energy gain g >1. A. L. Kritcher, et al. Phys. Rev. E, 109 (025204), 2024.(https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.109.025204)
   2. Design of an inertial fusion experiment exceeding the lawson criterion for ignition. A. L. Kritcher, et al. , Phys. Rev. E, 106:025201, 2022. (https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.106.025201)
   3. Design of inertial fusion implosions reaching the burning plasma regime. AL Kritcher, et al. Nature Physics, pages 1–8, 2022. (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-021-01485-9)
   4. A measurement of the equation of state of carbon envelopes of white dwarfs. Andrea L Kritcher, et al. Nature, 584(7819):51–54, 2020. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32760045/)
   5. Ultrafast x-ray thomson scattering of shock-compressed matter. Andrea L Kritcher, et al. Science, 322(5898):69–71, 2008. (https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1161466)