John Hopkins Nuckolls, M.A.

2024 Enrico Fermi Presidential Award Laureate

Honored for developing the foundational materials and physical chemistry to produce beneficial nanocrystals and polymers with controlled size, shape, connectivity, and topology that underpin energy-efficient technology, optical devices, and medical diagnostic technology.

Biography:

John Hopkins Nuckolls, the seventh director of Lawerence Livermore National Laboratory, took office during a time of unprecedented change during the end of the Cold War and the transition to the post-Cold War world. Nuckolls was born in Chicago, Illinois. He received his B.S. in physics in 1953 from Wheaton College in Illinois, and an M.A. in physics in 1955 from Columbia University in New York. That same year he came to Livermore to work as a staff physicist in Nuclear Weapons Design. In 1975 he became an associate program leader in Laser Fusion, then a division leader in Inertial Fusion, and in 1983 was appointed the associate director for Physics. Nuckolls served as director of the Laboratory from 1988–94, and then as associate director at large, and finally director emeritus.

Nuckolls’ contributions to national security and the development of fusion energy have been recognized by awards and citations such as the Ernest O. Lawrence Award presented to him in 1969 by the Atomic Energy Commission, the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996 by Fusion Power Associates, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service in 1996, and the Department of Energy Distinguished Associate Award in 1995. He is the author of over 90 publications, including "Post-Cold War Nuclear Dangers: Proliferation and Terrorism," a Science article published February 1995. Nuckolls is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science