physics

Mary Ann Sweeney

Mary Ann Sweeney is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mary Ann Sweeney rather than just read about it. In short: Mary Ann Sweeney (born 1945) is an American physicist at Sandia National Laboratories. Although her doctoral research concerned astronomy, her work at Sandia has largely concerned inertial confinement fusion and pulsed power.

Key takeaways

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Reference excerpt

Mary Ann Sweeney (born 1945) is an American physicist at Sandia National Laboratories. Although her doctoral research concerned astronomy, her work at Sandia has largely concerned inertial confinement fusion and pulsed power.

Education and career Sweeney is originally from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania; her parents moved to Baltimore when she was a teenager to improve their children's educational prospects. She majored in physics at Mount Holyoke College, graduating in 1967 with a bachelor's thesis concerning white dwarf stars. She went to Columbia University for doctoral study but, unable to find a faculty member at Columbia who would take a female student for the topics that interested her, finished her doctorate at Columbia with an outside advisor from Princeton University. She met her husband Ed, who was also an astronomy graduate student at the time and later went to law school at the University of New Mexico. She followed her husband to Albuquerque, where he had been assigned for his service in the United States Air Force. Seeking a science job nearby, Sweeney applied to work at Sandia National Laboratories, in "anything but secretarial work", and started her career in pulsed power physics there in 1974. Sweeney chaired the IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Committee from 1989 to 1990, as its first female chair. She also chaired the Committee on Women in Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society from 2010 to 2012. Sweeney spent 2 years at the National Nuclear Security Administration and later became editor-in-chief of the annual NNSA/DOE Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan for 6 years. In 2023, she became the point of contact to NNSA.

Contributions and recognition In 1992, Sweeney was named a Fellow of the IEEE "for contributions to the understanding of plasma opening switches and beam interactions with matter in particle beam accelerators". In 2007, Mount Holyoke College gave her their Alumnae Achievement Award. Sweeney won the 2013 National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Defense Programs Award of Excellence for her work as editor-in-chief of the NNSA Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan. That same year she was recruited by Asay and Chhabildas to assist in writing and editing their upcoming book. She became one of four coauthors of the book Impactful Times: Memories of 60 Years of Shock Wave Research at Sandia National Laboratories (2017).

Selected publications Lucy, L. B.; Sweeney, M. A. (August 1971), "Spectroscopic binaries with circular orbits", Astronomical Journal, 76: 544–556, Bibcode:1971AJ.....76..544L, doi:10.1086/111159 Sweeney, M. A. (June 1976), "Cooling times, luminosity functions and progenitor masses of degenerate dwarfs", Astronomy and Astrophysics, 49: 375–385, Bibcode:1976A&A....49..375S Sweeney, M. A.; Farnsworth, A. V. (January 1981), "High-gain, low-intensity ICF targets for a charged-particle beam fusion driver", Nuclear Fusion, 21 (1): 41–54, Bibcode:1981NucFu..21...41S, doi:10.1088/0029-5515/21/1/004 Johnson, D. J.; Quintenz, J. P.; Sweeney, M. A. (February 1985), "Electron and ion kinetics and anode plasma formation in two applied Br field ion diodes", Journal of Applied Physics, 57 (3): 794–805, Bibcode:1985JAP....57..794J, doi:10.1063/1.334728 Matzen, M. Keith; Sweeney, M. A.; Adams, R. G.; Asay, J. R.; Bailey, J. E.; Bennett, G. R.; Bliss, D. E.; Bloomquist, D. D.; Brunner, T. A.; Campbell, R. B.; Chandler, G. A.; Coverdale, C. A.; Cuneo, M. E.; Davis, J.-P.; Deeney, C.; Desjarlais, M. P.; Donovan, G. L.; Garasi, C. J.; Haill, T. A.; Hall, C. A.; Hanson, D. L.; Hurst, M. J.; Jones, B.; Knudson, M. D.; Leeper, R. J.; Lemke, R. W.; Mazarakis, M. G.; McDaniel, D. H.; Mehlhorn, T. A.; Nash, T. J.; Olson, C. L.; Porter, J. L.; Rambo, P. K.; Rosenthal, S. E.; Rochau, G. A.; Ruggles, L. E.; Ruiz, C. L.; Sanford, T. W. L.; Seamen, J. F.; Sinars, D. B.; Slutz, S. A.; Smith, I. C.; Struve, K. W.; Stygar, W. A.; Vesey, R. A.; Weinbrecht, E. A.; Wenger, D. F.; Yu, E. P. (May 2005), "Pulsed-power-driven high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research", Physics of Plasmas, 12 (5): 055503, Bibcode:2005PhPl...12e5503M, doi:10.1063/1.1891746 Asay, James R.; Chhabildas, Lalit C.; Lawrence, R. Jeffery; Sweeney, Mary Ann (2017), Impactful Times: Memories of 60 Years of Shock Wave Research at Sandia National Laboratories, Shock Wave and High Pressure Phenomena, Springer International Publishing, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-33347-2, ISBN 978-3-319-33345-8

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary Ann Sweeney

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mary Ann Sweeney claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mary Ann Sweeney before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mary Ann Sweeney ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mary Ann Sweeney

In research: Mary Ann Sweeney appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mary Ann Sweeney in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mary Ann Sweeney is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, 20th-century American physicists, 20th-century American women physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mary Ann Sweeney outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is Mary Ann Sweeney in simple terms?

Why does Mary Ann Sweeney matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

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Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mary Ann Sweeney.