Maria G. Johnson

Position: Research Scientist

Affiliation: PSFC-MIT

Email: gatu@psfc.mit.edu

Research Website: https://www.psfc.mit.edu/people/scientific-staff/maria-gatu-johnson

Dr. Gatu Johnson has been a member of the PSFC High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) group since 2010. Her current primary responsibilities include acting as a responsible scientist involved in maintaining and analyzing data from two large magnetic neutron spectrometers [the Magnetic Recoil neutron Spectrometers (MRS)] installed at the OMEGA laser and the National Ignition Facility (NIF), and managing the HEDP group's Accelerator Facility for diagnostic development. She is also deeply involved in running and supporting experiments at the OMEGA laser facility, with a particular focus on plasma nuclear science, and is the principal investigator for a Discovery Science experiment on Stellar- and Big Bang Nucleosynthesis on the NIF. Dr. Gatu Johnson has uniquely used the MRS on the NIF to probe collective fuel motion in various implosions. Her findings seem to suggest that fuel kinetic energy in ignition implosions remains during burn, which has a significant impact on the implosion performance. Remaining fuel kinetic energy at burn may also impact measurements of plasma ion temperatures on the NIF, which is a topic Dr. Gatu Johnson is currently investigating, both through analysis of existing NIF data and design and execution of new OMEGA experiments to shed light on this issue.