Building High Energy Density Science Capacity at an Emerging Research Institution

UC Merced is the newest University of California campus, with fast-growing, interdisciplinary research mission. In this talk, I'll explain how my colleagues and I have leveraged the DOE's commitment to supporting cutting edge research and the training of a diverse expert workforce in order to build our capacity in high energy density science. My involvement in these programs began during my transition from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to UC Merced in 2018, and now encompasses projects funded by the DOE's MSIPP, RENEW, and FAIR programs. A comparison of these different UC Merced programs will be presented, highlighting research progress, successful strategies for application and project management, how our programs dovetail to provide wide-ranging student support, and our prospects for the future.