Recent News
A reported titled "Research
Opportunities in Plasma Astrophysics" has been released in August 2010,
based on "Workshop
on Opportunities in Plasma Astrophysics" or WOPA held at Princeton,
New Jersey, on January 18-21, 2010. The goal is to articulate a
unified, comprehensive set of major questions and research
opportunities in the broad areas of plasma astrophysics. Ten major
questions were generated by this community activity.
A new Center
for Momentum Transport & Flow Organization (CMTFO) in Plasmas
and Magnetofluids has been
established in September 2009 as a Plasma Science Center sponsored by
the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Fusion Energy Sciences.
The
CMTFO brings together astrophysical and magnetic fusion theorists,
experimentalists and computationalists from multiple institutions.
Working across a range of experiments extending from liquid metal
magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and small laboratory plasmas to large
magnetic confinement devices, Center researchers are examining the link
between turbulent momentum transport and large scale flow
self-organization using newly developed diagnostic and data analysis
techniques, and are investigating and testing emerging theoretical and
computational models.
I was awarded a Distinguished
Research Fellow by PPPL on
March
23,
2009. The award citation
reads, "For
his pioneering research including the elucidating of the underlying
physics of magnetic reconnection in plasmas, and his leadership in
exploring the magnetorotational instability."
I
was elected in October 2004 as a Fellow of the American
Physical Society upon the
recommendation
of the Division of Plasma Physics (news release).
The citation reads, "For
seminal contributions of experimental research on basic
physical processes important to both laboratory and astrophysical
plasmas, including
dynamo effects, magnetic reconnection, magnetic helicity conservation,
and
magnetorotational instability."
I shared
the 2003 Kaul
Foundation Prize for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research and
Technology Development
by Princeton University.
(news release)
The award citation reads, "For
the thorough experimental investigation
of driven magnetic reconnection in a laboratory plasma. In this work,
careful diagnostic studies of the current sheet structure and dynamics,
ion heating, and associated wave activity have provided a major advance
in
the understanding of reconnection processes in laboratory and
astrophysical plasmas."
A new
Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and
Astrophysical Plasmas has been
established on September 15, 2003 to investigate fundamental processes
in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, including dynamo, magnetic
reconnection, conservation of magnetic helicity, angular momentum
transport, ion heating and magnetic chaos.
The Center is funded as a Physics Frontier Center by National Science
Fundation in coordination with the Department of Energy.
I shared the 2002 Award for
Excellence in Plasma Physics Research by the Division of
Plasma
Physics of the American
Physical Society.
(news release)
The award citation reads, "For
the experimental investigation
of driven magnetic reconnection in a laboratory plasma. In this work,
careful diagnostic studies of the current sheet structure, dynamics and
associated wave activity provide a comprehensive picture of the
reconnection process."