--- description: Find out why Andrea Kritcher is one of the 100 most influential people of 2023. title: Andrea Kritcher: The 100 Most Influential People of 2023 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb839f56be6d532e/698a3bda4ee262e93731b476/Andrea-Kritcher-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 13, 2023 # Andrea Kritcher by Alejandro de la Garza  Blaise Douros—Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Nuclear fusion could provide limitless clean energy—if scientists can master the tricky physics of smashing hydrogen atoms together. After [an August 2021 experiment](https://time.com/6240746/nuclear-fusion-breakthrough-milestone-clean-energy/ "undefined") at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, Calif., just barely failed to generate more energy than was put into it, the facility’s lead laser engineer approached Andrea Kritcher, the principal experimental designer. The engineers had managed to squeeze a bit more energy out of the gigantic lasers that the facility uses to spark the reaction, and it was up to Kritcher to figure out how to use those improvements in service of a dream of generating unlimited, emission-free power. After more work, Kritcher’s insights helped bring about the first-ever controlled fusion ignition in December 2022, a holy grail in physics research that had eluded scientists for decades, and another step on the road to fusion power. Her work is one more example in decades of passionate research from hundreds of scientists, engineers, and technicians that made the fusion breakthrough possible. _de la Garza is a TIME staff writer_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269989/andrea-kritcher/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269989/andrea-kritcher/"},"headline":"Andrea Kritcher","datePublished":"2023-04-13T10:32:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-07-21T07:22:05.048Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269989/andrea-kritcher/","keywords":["TIME 100","franchise","sponsorshipblock","TIME100 2023","t100booking2023"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb839f56be6d532e/698a3bda4ee262e93731b476/Andrea-Kritcher-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb839f56be6d532e/698a3bda4ee262e93731b476/Andrea-Kritcher-time100-2023.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269989/andrea-kritcher/","name":"Andrea Kritcher"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME100 | The 100 Most Influential People of 2023","description":"See all the people on Time's 2023 Time 100 list","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/P6RIsapV/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2023-04-13T10:30:00.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P6RIsapV.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269989/andrea-kritcher/","duration":"PT1M53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2023/6269989/andrea-kritcher/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```