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LaserNetUS Looks Ahead as Coordinator Dr. Chandra Breanne Curry Steps Down
Jan 19, 2026. News
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — LaserNetUS announces that Chandra Breanne Curry is stepping down as LaserNetUS Coordinator, concluding nearly five years leading program operations and user-facing activities.
LaserNetUS launched in 2018 following recommendations from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report Opportunities in Intense Ultrafast Lasers: Reaching for the Brightest Light. Since then, the program has expanded to 13 DOE-funded facilities, awarded 172 experiments from 370 peer-reviewed proposals, and supported more than 800 researchers across academia, national laboratories, industry, and government.
To date, LaserNetUS-awarded experiments have contributed to 92+ publications, 44+ PhD theses, and hundreds of conference presentations. In 2025, the program was featured as a case study in the OECD report Unlocking the Potential of Research Infrastructure Ecosystems to Tackle Societal Challenges.
LaserNetUS will continue operating under U.S. DOE Office of Fusion Energy Sciences guidance, supported by network leadership, facility points of contact, and user committees. The program's mission remains unchanged: enable high-impact, peer-reviewed user science and strengthen cross-facility coordination.
"Turning science into capability takes collaboration and shared infrastructure that is reliable, accessible, and improving year over year," said Curry. "LaserNetUS works because facilities and users show up, run hard experiments, and close the loop from proposal to data to outcomes. The program will keep moving forward with the same community commitment that built it.”
Transition information, including points of contact and near-term updates, will be communicated as decisions are finalized.
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