Research Bio

Prof. Igor Jovanovic directs the Applied Nuclear Science Group in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at UC Berkeley and is a faculty affiliate of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was a staff physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and held professorships at Purdue University, Penn State University, and the University of Michigan, where he served as the Associate Chair and Graduate Program Chair in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, as well as Professor of Applied Physics and Professor of Physics.

His core expertise is in radiation detection and measurement, intense laser science and technology, and laser-matter interactions. His research interests include nuclear security, nuclear energy, and fundamental science, and he has been supported by DOE, NSF, DHS, DOD, NRC, and industry.  He has made numerous original contributions to nuclear and optical sciences, including novel detectors based on heterogeneous composites, opaque scintillators, and two-dimensional materials; remote detection of nuclear and chemical threats using laser-produced plasmas; and high-power laser technology based on optical parametric chirped-pulse amplification.

Prof. Jovanovic is a recipient of many awards, including the DARPA Young Faculty Award and the DHS Nuclear Forensics Junior Faculty Award, and he is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society and a Fellow of Optica. He holds a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering from University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S./M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zagreb.

Research Expertise and Interest

nuclear security, nuclear energy, fundamental science