I’m excited to share that I’m leading a new six-institution program, Diagnostics for Extreme-LIGHT, to build the measurement science the multi-petawatt laser era demands. High-intensity laser facilities are coming online around the world, including ZEUS in the U.S., CoReLS in South Korea, Vulcan 2020 in the U.K., Apollon in France, the Extreme Light Infrastructure, and…
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Earlier this year, while on sabbatical at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, I gave a lecture on High Resolution X-ray Scattering as part of the HEDS Seminar Series
We have just produced a new 12-page ebook introducing the science of high energy density matter. Check out the ebook here!
I recently gave a talk at the University of Michigan as part of the Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering (MIPSE) Seminar Series. After the talk, the MIPSE team recorded a short interview where we discussed the motivation behind this work and how high-resolution X-ray scattering can reveal temperature, structure, and dynamics in matter…
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Our latest paper, published in Nature, reports the first direct measurements of ion temperature in a superheated solid. By combining ultrafast laser heating with meV-resolution inelastic X-ray scattering, we showed that gold can remain crystalline at more than 14 times its melting temperature, far beyond theoretical limits! Link to paper
I’m excited to share that my latest paper, published in Nature Communications with former graduate student Cameron Allen, confirms a 200-year-old prediction by Fourier—this time in high-energy-density plasmas. We observed that heat doesn’t always flow smoothly between materials in extreme conditions. Instead, it can get trapped at the boundary—a phenomenon known as interfacial thermal resistance…
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This past week, my collaborators and I wrapped up an exciting experiment at the European XFEL, where we used high-resolution meV inelastic X-ray scattering to measure temperatures inside matter heated to over 10,000 Kelvin. It’s a major step forward in our ability to probe extreme states of matter with atomic-level detail. The team included researchers…
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In this episode of Sagebrushers, University of Nevada, Reno President Brian Sandoval speaks with Associate Professor Thomas White. White researches space not by gazing at the sky, but by replicating astrophysical conditions in the laboratory, effectively creating mini-planets and stars. https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2024/sagebrushers-s3-ep4-thomas-white
Graduate student Sarah Shores Prins was recently awarded the 2024-25 Graduate Research Opportunity Fellowship from the Nevada NASA Space Grant Consortium. This competitive award grants its recipients with $20,000 during the length of the fellowship. These funds help support Sarah as she pursues research measuring the thermal conductivity of iron alloys under conditions similar to…
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Congratulations to undergraduate student Jaya Sicard for receiving the 2024-25 NV NASA Undergraduate Scholarship. This competitive award requires students to submit a research proposal, and grants its recipients with $3,000 over 2 semesters to support their proposed research. These funds aid Jaya in her research investigating the thermal conductivity of warm dense magnesium oxide. Great…
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