Image of Dawn Shaughnessy

Dawn Shaughnessy was inducted into the Science category in 2012.

My Story

Dawn Shaughnessy is the group leader for experimental nuclear and radiochemistry and the principal investigator for the heavy element group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Under her leadership, a team of scientists has discovered six new elements on the periodic table - the heaviest elements found to date. She recently led a group that named the newest heavy element to be accepted into the periodic table - Livermorium - in honor of the Lab and its host city of Livermore. In addition to her research, Dawn thrives on getting young people interested in science. Her team recently received a $5,000 grant and donated it to the Livermore High School chemistry department. The gift grew from Dawn's memories of working in poorly equipped chemistry classes in high school.