Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory



Henry Chapman, who worked at Livermore from 1996 to 2007, was presented with an honorary doctorate by Sweden’s Uppsala University for his work on developing techniques for imaging and crystallography with intense x-ray pulses. Chapman is a professor of physics at Hamburg University and director of the Coherent Imaging Division at its Center for Free-Electron Laser Science. He is also the founding director of the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science at the German Electron Synchrotron. The honorary doctorate was awarded for his work in this field, along with his initiatives to bring together and leverage international teams and resources.

During his time at Lawrence Livermore, Chapman helped his team earn an R&D 100 award for a project that put forth novel systems for microelectronics. Chapman later moved into imaging molecules with x-ray free-electron lasers. Before his departure, he also received the Edward Teller Fellowship for his work at the Laboratory.

Two researchers affiliated with Lawrence Livermore—Bill Pitz, a combustion scientist in the Materials Science division, and Charlie Westbrook, a retired employee—have been named fellows of the International Combustion Institute. Both are inaugural fellows and were recognized “as distinguished for outstanding contributions, whether it be in research or in applications,” at the 37th International Symposium on Combustion in Dublin, Ireland, this summer.

A 35-year Livermore employee, Pitz was honored for his work to develop chemical kinetics models for fuels with a large impact on the simulation of combustion in engines. Westbrook, who mentored Pitz for much of his Laboratory career, solved the question of what property of hydrocarbon fuel creates engine knock. Westbrook retired from the Laboratory in 2005 after a distinguished 41-year career. The Combustion Institute—of which Westbrook was once president—is an international professional society for combustion researchers, with 4,267 members from 33 countries.