Senior
Physicist
Luisa Fernandez-Hansen is a senior physicist at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where she has worked
for the last forty years. She got her Ph.D. in experimental
Nuclear Physics from the University of California in
Berkely. Dr. Hansen is a native of Chile where she got
her B. Sc. in Mathematics, with a minor in Physics.
She has had a very successful career and has over
170 publications in the scientific literature. She has
been invited to present her work at national and international
meetings in Europe, Russia, China and Japan. Dr. Hansen
was chosen a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society
in 1989, and her citation reads: "For development of
the LLNL Pulsed Sphere Program; for accomplishments
in the measurements of neutron cross sections for defense
programs and for fission, fusion and radiation shielding
efforts in the United States and worldwide." In 1998
she was chosen one of the 50 top minority women in Science,
Engineering and Technology in the country by the National
Technical Association.
One of her main interests is to increase the participation
of women in Science ad Engineering. She has been a member
of the Committee on the Status of Women in Physics (1981-1983)
and also a member of the Committee on International
Freedom of Scientists of the American Physical Society.
She has had an active participation in Expand Your Horizons
in Math and Science and Career's Day annual conferences,
as an organizer, workshop leader and presenter.
Dr. Hansen has been president of the Walnut Creek
branch of the American Association of University Women
(1989-1990) and president of the LLNL Women Association
(1992). Presently, she is the chairperson for the Scholarship
Committees of the Pan American Round Table of Contra
Costa y Alameda Counties and Centro Chileno Lautaro
of San Francisco These two organizations lend economic
support to college and university students with Hispanic
backgrounds. She is also a Commissioner of the Human
Relation Commission of Contra Costa County.
Dr.
Luisa Fernandez-Hansen