Laboratory for Energy Applications for the Future
Coordinating fundamental and applied research at the intersection of materials and energy applications
The Laboratory for Energy Applications for the Future (LEAF) brings together multidisciplinary efforts across Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to realize materials solutions for current and emerging energy applications. LLNL core competencies in high-performance computing, simulation, and machine learning as well as advanced manufacturing support LEAF objectives.
By harnessing LLNL’s ecosystem of expertise, capabilities, and facilities, LEAF aims to:
- Expand foundational knowledge in materials science areas directly relevant to the grid, transportation, and other energy-intensive sectors
- Understand and predict how materials perform or degrade over time in real-world energy applications
- Accelerate the development of materials for more secure and affordable energy systems
- Support maturation of US energy technologies from inception to demonstration
LLNL’s mission in energy security includes improving energy technology viability and supporting a safe, secure, and reliable US energy infrastructure, and our work contributes to advances in this area.
Research focus areas
The LEAF community concentrates on four main research topics.
Featured scientists
Learn more about some of the people engaged in energy materials research at LLNL.

Tae Wook uses supercomputers to simulate material behavior at the microstructure level, supporting projects in energy storage, actinides, corrosion, metal additive manufacturing, and more. He enjoys computational materials science because “it integrates physics, chemistry, and applied mathematics.”
Tae Wook is particularly proud of his work with the Hydrogen Materials–Advanced Research Consortium (HyMARC), a multidisciplinary program focusing on solid-state hydrogen storage materials. In addition to participating in collaborative research with researchers from other national laboratories, he defined the roles of mesoscale modeling within the consortium and led microstructure-level research tasks.
Learn more about Tae Wook: Biography | People of PLS Profile

Johanna supports degradation research and polymer additive manufacturing at LLNL. She makes resins for 3D printing, advancing the chemistries and materials for 3D-printing systems, and then uses 3D printing toward targeted applications such as silicone dampeners and microfluidics. She is also building multi-material 3D printers as tools for chemistry and formulations optimization.
Although she tried a variety of scientists throughout her education, Schwartz finally found her niche in chemistry. “I wanted to find chemical solutions for engineering problems and be at the forefront of creating different engineering systems,” she said.
Learn more about Johanna: Biography | “Meet LLNL” Profile