List of plasma physicists
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of physicists who have worked in or made notable contributions to the field of plasma physics.
| Name | Known for | Recognition | |||
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| Félicie Albert | development and characterization of x-ray sources from laser-wakefield accelerators |
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| Hannes Alfvén | magneto-hydrodynamics | Nobel Prize (1970) | |||
| Radu Bălescu | Alfvén Prize (2000) | ||||
| Elena Belova | numerical contributions to the fundamental physics of magnetically confined plasmas |
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| Emily Belli | simulations of transport and turbulence in strongly rotating plasmas | APS Fellow (2024) | |||
| Willard Harrison Bennett | Z-pinch is a form of "Bennett pinch". Also invented radio frequency mass spectrometry. | ||||
| Ira B. Bernstein | fundamental theoretical contributions plasma physics including a wave mode in his name | Maxwell Prize (1982) | |||
| Kristian Birkeland | First suggested that polar electric currents (or auroral electrojets) are connected to a system of filaments (now called "Birkeland currents") that flow along geomagnetic field lines into and away from the polar region. | ||||
| David Bohm | derived the Bohm sheath criterion, which states that a plasma must flow with at least the speed of sound toward a solid surface | ||||
| Jana Brotánková | COMPASS CASTOR tokamak, GOLEM tokamak | ||||
| Oscar Buneman | computational plasma physics and plasma simulation, Farley–Buneman instability | ||||
| Keith H. Burrell | established the links between sheared plasma flow and turbulent transport | Maxwell Prize (2018) | |||
| Franklin Chang-Diaz | created the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) concept, an electromagnetic thruster for spacecraft propulsion | ||||
| Nam Chang-hee | relativistic laser-matter interactions using femtosecond PW lasers | APS Fellow (2008) | |||
| Sydney Chapman | developed kinetic theory of gases and applied it to study the magnetosphere | ||||
| Francis F. Chen | electrostatic probes, textbook | Maxwell Prize (1995) | |||
| Liu Chen |
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| Bruno Coppi | design of high field tokamaks | Maxwell Prize (1987) | |||
| Sir Steven Cowley | astrophysical and turbulent plasmas | ||||
| William Crookes | vacuum tubes and the Crookes tube | ||||
| Ronald C. Davidson | one-component non-neutral plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2008) | |||
| John M. Dawson | introduced the use of computer simulation to plasma physics | Maxwell Prize (1977) | |||
| Peter Debye | Debye shielding and Debye length | Nobel Prize (1936) | |||
| James F. Drake | theory of the fundamental mechanism of fast reconnection of magnetic fields in plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2010) | |||
| Robert Ellis | co-led the Spheromak project | ||||
| Harold P. Eubank | magnetic fusion energy research | APS Fellow (1975) | |||
| Philo Farnsworth | invention of the cathode-ray tube, television and Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor | ||||
| Nathaniel Fisch | theoretical development of efficient rf-driven current in plasmas |
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| Edward A. Frieman | theory of magnetically confined plasmas, including fundamental work on the formulation of the MHD Energy Principle | Maxwell Prize (2002) | |||
| Harold Fürth | resistive instabilities | Maxwell Prize (1983) | |||
| Vitaly Ginzburg | theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in plasmas | ||||
| Valery Godyak | fundamental contributions to the physics of low temperature plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2004) | |||
| Robert J. Goldston | empirical scaling relationship for the confinement of energy in tokamak plasmas | APS Fellow (1987) | |||
| Melvin Gottlieb | responsible for building Princeton Large Torus and Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at PPPL | ||||
| Roy W. Gould | beam-plasma interactions | Maxwell Prize (1994) | |||
| Harold Grad | theoretical contributions to magnetohydrodynamics | Maxwell Prize (1986) | |||
| John M. Greene | contributions to theory of magnetohydrodynamic equilibria and ideal and resistive instabilities | Maxwell Prize (1992) | |||
| Hans R. Griem | contributions to plasma spectroscopy and spectral line broadening in plasmas | Maxwell Prize (1991) | |||
| Akira Hasegawa | theories of nonlinear drift wave turbulence, including the Hasegawa-Mima equation |
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| Noah Hershkowitz | fundamental contributions to the physics of low temperature plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2004) | |||
| Laura Berzak Hopkins | hohlraum design for inertial confinement fusion | APS Fellow (2025) | |||
| Ratko Janev | nuclear processes in low-temperature plasmas | Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts | |||
| Allison Jaynes | interaction of solar plasma with the Earth's magnetosphere and radiation belts | Weimer Award (2023) | |||
| Li Jiangang | HT-7 tokomak | Chinese Academy of Engineering | |||
| Maria Gatu Johnson | inertial fusion science stellar nucleosynthesis |
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| Chandrashekhar J. Joshi | application of plasma concepts to high energy electron and positron acceleration |
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| Boris B. Kadomtsev | early plasma turbulence theory, stability and nonlinear theory of MHD and kinetic instabilities | Maxwell Prize (1998) | |||
| Predhiman Krishan Kaw | founding director of Institute for Plasma Research | ||||
| Charles F. Kennel | fundamental contributions to the basic plasma physics of collisionless shocks | Maxwell Prize (1997) | |||
| Donald W. Kerst | invention of the levitated toroidal multipole | Maxwell Prize (1984) | |||
| Shaukat Hameed Khan | laser isotope separation, Chief Science Officer of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (1969-2005) | ||||
| Craig Kletzing | studies of Alfven waves and aurorae | APS Fellow (2022) | |||
| Andrea Kritcher | hohlraum design, first laboratory burning and igniting fusion plasma | APS Fellow (2022) | |||
| William L. Kruer | theoretical and experimental understanding of intense electromagnetic waves with plasmas | Maxwell Prize (1990) | |||
| Russell M. Kulsrud | plasma theory including magnetic reconnection | Maxwell Prize (1993) | |||
| Lev Landau | Landau damping | Nobel Prize (1962) | |||
| Irving Langmuir | coined the term "plasma" to hint at the lifelike behavior of this state of matter. Developed electron temperature concepts and an electrostatic probe, the Langmuir probe. | Nobel Prize (1932) | |||
| Mounir Laroussi | Plasma pencil, biomedical applications of low temperature plasma, plasma medicine | APS Fellow (2023) | |||
| Eric Lerner | focus fusion and plasma cosmology | ||||
| John Lindl | contributions in high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research | Maxwell Prize (2007) | |||
| Yu Lin | computational research in nonlinear physics in the boundary layers of space plasmas | Weimer Award (2002) | |||
| John H. Malmberg | experimental demonstration of Landau damping and development of pure electron plasmas | Maxwell Prize (1985) | |||
| A A Mamun | nonlinear dynamics of dusty plasma physics | Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award (2009) | |||
| William H. Matthaeus | turbulence in space and astrophysical plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2019) | |||
| Saskia Mordijck | particle transport in tokamaks | APS Fellow (2025) | |||
| Gregor Eugen Morfill | plasma crystals as a solid state of aggregation of dusty plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2011) | |||
| Warren Bicknell Mori | theory and kinetic simulations of nonlinear processes in plasma-based acceleration | Maxwell Prize (2020) | |||
| Forrest S. Mozer | electric field measurements in space plasma | APS Fellow (1977) | |||
| Ghulam Murtaza | theory of ionized plasmas | ||||
| John Nuckolls | introduced the inertial confinement approach to fusion | Maxwell Prize (1981) | |||
| Thomas M. O'Neil | plasma theory, including extension of Landau damping to the nonlinear regime | Maxwell Prize (1996) | |||
| Tihiro Ohkawa | developed the doublet approach for toroidal confinement fusion | Maxwell Prize (1979) | |||
| Eugene N. Parker | plasma astrophysics, including predicting the solar wind, explaining the solar dynamo, and formulating the theory of magnetic reconnection |
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| Friedrich Paschen | Paschen's law, an equation relating the breakdown voltage to the gas pressure and electrode gap length | ||||
| Anthony Peratt | influential advocate of plasma cosmology | Yuan Ping | inertial confinement fusion, Raman amplification of lasers in plasma |
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| Maxim G. Ponomarev | pioneering investigations of disturbances of all plasma species by modeling charged particle emissions from imaginary and additional sources:. Imaginary-emission method for modeling disturbances of all magnetoplasma species: Reflecting and absorbing objects in motion through a rarefied plasma at different angles to the ambient magnetic field (Phys. Rev. E 54, 5591 – Published 1 November 1996) | ||||
| Miklos Porkolab | linear and nonlinear plasma waves and wave-particle interactions |
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| Richard F. Post | developed the magnetic mirror concept for magnetic confinement fusion | Maxwell Prize (1978) | |||
| Annick Pouquet | energy transfer in magneto-fluid turbulence | Alfvén Prize (2020) | |||
| Ksenia Aleksandrovna Razumova | stable plasmas in tokamaks, experimental measurement of plasma energy | Alfvén Prize (2017) | |||
| Caterina Riconda | laser-plasma interactions | APS Fellow (2023) | |||
| Marshall Rosenbluth | fundamental theoretical contributions plasma physics, and in particular, plasma instabilities |
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| Norman Rostoker | statistical mechanics of particles with Coulomb interactions | Maxwell Prize (1988) | |||
| Subrata Roy | Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle and serpentine geometry plasma actuator | ||||
| Dmitri Ryutov | theory of low and high energy density plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2017) | |||
| Roald Sagdeev | theory of collisionless shocks and stochastic magnetic fields | Maxwell Prize (2001) | |||
| Meghnad Saha | Saha ionization equation | ||||
| Andrey Dmitriyevich Sakharov | proposed development of tokamaks | ||||
| Rudolf Seeliger | electric discharges in gases and plasma physics | ||||
| Vitaly Shafranov | Grad–Shafranov equation, Kruskal–Shafranov instability) | Alfvén Prize (2001) | |||
| Lyman Spitzer | Spitzer resistivity, Project Matterhorn | Maxwell Prize (1975) | |||
| Phillip A. Sprangle | high intensity laser interactions with plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2013) | |||
| Thomas H. Stix | doublet approach for toroidal confinement fusion | Maxwell Prize (1980) | |||
| Ravindra Sudan | generation and propagation of intense ion beams | Maxwell Prize (1989) | |||
| Linda Sugiyama | developer of numerical simulations for plasma physics | APS Fellow (2004) | |||
| Clifford Surko | invention of and development of techniques to accumulate, confine, and utilize positron plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2014) | |||
| John Bryan Taylor | helicity conservation, bootstrap current, ballooning transformation, plasma theory |
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| Weichao Tu | dynamics of charged particles and plasma in the Van Allen radiation belt | Weimer Award (2021) | |||
| Anatoly Vlasov | Vlasov equation models plasma with long-range interaction between particles | ||||
| Friedrich Wagner | discovery of H-mode in ASDEX in 1984 | Alfvén Prize (2007) | |||
| Katherine Weimer | plasma magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium and stability theory | ||||
| Anne E. White | turbulent transport in tokamaks | Weimer Award (2014) | |||
| Masaaki Yamada | experimental studies of magnetic reconnection relevant to space, astrophysical and fusion plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2015) | |||
| Lin Yin | laser-plasma interactions | Weimer Award (2008) | |||
| Ellen G. Zweibel | energetics, stability, and dynamics of astrophysical plasmas | Maxwell Prize (2016) |