Artur Davoyan (UCLA)
Artur Davoyan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. His group is working on materials and systems for high energy and power applications to space exploration and fusion research. Specifically, his group is pioneering new concepts of in-space propulsion, such as laser ablation propulsion, laser sailing, and pellet beam propulsion. Davoyan's works have been marked by a number of honors and awards, notably NASA NIAC Fellowships and NASA ECF award.

Justin Galbraith (LLNL)
Jaime Marian is professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (courtesy appointment) at UCLA, where his group uses advanced simulation techniques for materials evolution under fusion irradiation conditions. Prior to joining UCLA, Marian worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory developing models tu study the behavior of materials under extreme conditions. He holds a PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and did postdoctoral work at the California Institute of Technology. He was the recipient of a DOE Early Career Award in 2010 and his research portfolio includes fusion structural materials, plasma-facing materials, high-entropy alloys, next-generation electronics, and aerospace materials.

Clement Goyan (LLNL)
Dr. Clément Goyon is a Research Scientist in the Physical and Life Science Division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the U.S. He currently serves as Deputy Hub Leader for the IFE-STAR hub, where he oversees work across 10 institutions to advance science and technology toward achieving inertial fusion energy. As one of two primary points of contact between the U.S. Department of Energy Fusion Energy Sciences program and LLNL, Dr. Goyon plays a key role in fostering collaboration and driving innovation. In addition, Dr. Goyon leads the diagnostic team for the megajoule neutron radiography project at LLNL. He also coordinates a strategic partnership between LLNL and Zap Energy, and a user facility pilot program to partner with academia. Dr. Goyon specializes in experimental plasma physics, plasma diagnostics, and high-energy density experiments. He earned his Ph.D. in physics from École Polytechnique, France, graduating with highest honors. With over 70 publications to his name, he has established himself as a leading expert in designing and implementing advanced diagnostics and conducting high-energy density experiments at premier facilities worldwide.

Jamie Mariam (UCLA)

Derek Mariscal (LLNL)

Chris McGuffey (General Atomics)
Chris McGuffey is an experimental physicist using pulsed lasers for particle beam generation and inertial confinement fusion. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences. He has 15 years of experience at numerous laser facilities around the world in academic, research, and development settings. In 2020 he joined the Inertial Fusion Technologies division of General Atomics. His focus at GA has been on high repetition rate target delivery schemes and X-ray diagnostics. He has served in the laser users’ communities in various ways including as the director of the High Energy-Density Science Summer School for three years. He currently leads the IFE target fabrication thrust in the STARFIRE (LLNL led) hub of the DOE FES IFE-STAR program.

Mackenzie Nelson (LLNL)
Mackenzie Nelson joined LLNL in April 2024 as a Techno-Economic Systems Analyst. Since joining LLNL, she has been involved in the modernization of LLNL’s Integrated Process Model (IPM), a systems modeling tool used in studying technical and economic tradeoffs in the design of an Inertial Fusion Energy power plant. Prior to LLNL, she worked as a mechanical engineer, focused on the manufacturing processes of solid-state lithium batteries for electric vehicles. She obtained an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where her research focused on designing methods to detect and measure corrosion in fluoride and solar salt energy systems. Prior to obtaining her graduate degree, she spent five years working in finance predominantly in valuation advisory, ascribing value to business enterprises, and debt and equity instruments across an array of industries. She also holds a B.S. in Applied Statistics and a B.S. in Economics from Penn State University.

Derek Schaeffer (UCLA)

Frank Tsung (UCLA)
Frank Tsung is a research scientist at UCLA and is one of the developer of the particle-in-cell code OSIRIS. His research interest includes laser plasma interactions, high energy density plasma physics, and high performance computing. He has published over 300 articles on many different topics in plasma physics, including laser plasma interactions relatred to inertial fusion energy and plasma based accelerators, and novel numerical techniques associated with kinetic simulations of plasmas.

Derek Turnbull (LLE/University of Rochester)
David Turnbull received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from UCSD in 2007, followed by a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 2013. He spent three years working on indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion at the National Ignition Facility, and in 2016 joined the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics, where he is currently a staff scientist and the group leader for laser-plasma interactions. David leads a team that will soon be using the prototype FLUX laser to demonstrate the expected benefits of broad-bandwidth laser drivers for inertial fusion energy. He became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2025.

Petros Tzeferacos (University of Rochester)
Petros Tzeferacos is the Director of Flash Center for Computational Science, a Professor of Physics and Astronomy, and a Senior Scientists at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics of the University of Rochester. He works on plasma physics and astrophysics, combining MHD theory, numerical modeling, and laser-driven laboratory experiments, to study fundamental astrophysical plasma processes with a focus on magnetized turbulence, dynamo, and charged particle acceleration. He is also working on several fundamental topics in inertial fusion energy and high energy density physics. He holds a visiting scientist position with the University of Oxford and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and is a guest scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received the APS John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research in 2019, an Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science in 2021, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2025.

Chaojie Zhang (UCLA)
Chaojie Zhang is an Associate Project Scientist in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCLA. His research accelerates the realization of plasma-based energy-frontier colliders by integrating high-impact experiments, large-scale simulations, and AI/ML-driven modeling. He has served as Principal Investigator on peer-reviewed facility experiments at SLAC (FACET-II) and BNL (ATF), leading breakthroughs in generating high-energy, high-brightness electron bunches and probing plasma kinetic instabilities. Chaojie holds a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from Tsinghua University and was awarded the John Dawson Thesis Prize for his invention of FREP (Femtosecond Relativistic Electron Probing) for wakefield diagnostics.