Patricia “Trish” Baisden retired in 2013 from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) after a career spanning over 37 years. Since retiring, Dr. Baisden became an Adjunct Professor at San Jose State University and from 2013-2022 was the primary instructor for the American Chemical Society/Department of Energy (ACS/DOE) Summer School in Nuclear Chemistry, an intensive 6-week undergraduate fellowship program designed to introduce nuclear and radiochemical concepts to outstanding upper level undergraduate science and engineering majors and to stimulate their interest to pursue graduate studies in the field. At the time of her retirement from LLNL, Dr. Baisden was the Deputy Program Leader for the Inertial Confinement Fusion Program, a position she assumed in 2012 upon the conclusion of National Ignition Campaign (NIC). NIC was a multi-laboratory scientific and technology development program at LLNL focused on using the National Ignition Facility (NIF) to achieve ignition and thermonuclear burn in the laboratory via inertial confinement fusion. For NIC, Dr. Baisden served as its Director for Operations and LLNL Institutional Deputy. Dr. Baisden is a nuclear chemist, and during her career at LLNL, she has held a number of technical and management positions including division leader for analytical sciences, deputy director of the Seaborg Institute, materials program leader for NIF, chief scientist and deputy associate director for the Chemistry and Material Sciences Directorate. On assignment from LLNL, Dr. Baisden also served within Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), as a technical advisor to the Assistant Dep. Administrator, Office of Inertial Confinement Fusion. Professionally, she has held various technical and leadership positions such as an editor of the international journal Radiochimica Acta, chairperson of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Nuclear Chemistry Division (NUCL), and is currently a member of Scientific Advisory Committee for CENTAUR, NNSA’s Center of Excellence in Low Energy Nuclear Science lead by Texas A&M. Dr. Baisden is a Fellow of the ACS and was a recent recipient of the Kinard Distinguished Service Award from the NUCL Division. She has also served on numerous study panels and review committees including five consensus studies committees for the National Academies of Science. Dr. Baisden’s research interests include nuclear fusion, lasers and optical materials, heavy ion reactions, heavy element fission properties, the chemistry of 4 and 5f elements, and nuclear power and advanced fuel cycles. Dr. Baisden earned a B.S. in 1971 and Ph.D. in 1975 in chemistry under Prof. Gregory R. Choppin from the Florida State University. Before joining the staff at LLNL, she held a two-year postdoctoral appointment with Prof. Glenn T. Seaborg at the University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
