Kimberly Susan Budil is an American physicist who is the 13th and current director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,[1] making her the first woman to hold this position. She completed her bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Illinois Chicago,and her master's and doctorate in applied science from the University of California,Davis. She collaborated with Nobel laureate Donna Strickland,and made significant contributions to the field of high-power,ultra-fast lasers. Starting her career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1987,she held various roles across government departments,including the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense. In 2014,she managed relations between the University of California's campuses and the three Department of Energy labs it manages. Budil,who was made a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2019,has also been a prominent advocate for women in science.
While in graduate school,she worked with future Nobel laureate Donna Strickland,who told her about her impostor syndrome "Stop apologizing for being here –you belong and you are contributing in a real way.[3]" She shared her experience[4] and what she learned from it in a book "Find Your Path:Unconventional Lessons from 36 Leading Scientists and Engineers",[5] together with other contributors such as Stephon Alexander. Her main scientific contribution was in the field of high-power,ultra-fast lasers,participating in the NOVA project,[6] the first inertial confinement fusion project in the world and the predecessor of the National Ignition Facility.
Budil has been an early advocate for women in science.[12] She participated in the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Women's Association and organized numerous technical women's conferences,and she later contributed to international panels such as the American Physical Society's Committee on the Status of Women in Physics.[13][14]
↑Goodman, Daniel (2019). Find Your Path: Unconventional Lessons from 36 Leading Scientists and Engineers. MIT Press. ISBN978-0262537544.
↑Klein, Richard I.; Budil, Kimberly S.; Perry, Theodore S.; Bach, David R. (2003). "The Interaction of Supernova Remnants with Interstellar Clouds: Experiments on the Nova Laser". The Astrophysical Journal. 583 (1): 245–259. Bibcode:2003ApJ...583..245K. doi:10.1086/345340. S2CID120823603.
↑Borg, Anne (2005). "Attracting Girls into Physics". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol.795. pp.7–10. doi:10.1063/1.2128257.
↑Budil, Kimberly S. (2005). "Women in Physics in the U.S.: A Progress Report". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol.795. pp.175–178. doi:10.1063/1.2128320.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
