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Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Doctoral graduate yuan shi wins 2020 marshall n. rosenbluth outstanding doctoral thesis award.

Physicist Yuan Shi. (Photo courtesy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.)

Physicist Yuan Shi, who received his doctorate from the Princeton Program in Plasma Physics in 2018, has won the prestigious 2020 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award presented by the American Physical Society (APS).  The award recognizes “exceptional young scientists who have performed original doctoral thesis research of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of plasma physics.” 

The 2020 honor recognizes Shi’s thesis with the citation:  “For elegantly describing three-wave coupling in plasma modified by oblique magnetic fields, identifying applications including plasma-based laser amplifiers, and adapting quantum field theory to describe plasma physics in the strong-field regime.”

Intense laser beams

The “three-wave coupling in plasma” includes the classic interaction of intense laser beams propagating in plasma, where the energy contained in one laser beam can be transferred to the other two beams.  If the energy in a long laser pulse is captured by a short laser pulse, the laser intensity can be significantly amplified.  The “strong-field regime” refers to the regime in which electromagnetic fields are so intense that relativistic-quantum effects must be considered, such as virtual pairs of particles and anti-particles that undergo constant creation and annihilation, modifying the plasma environment. 

Shi was advised in his thesis by Professors Nat Fisch and Hong Qin.  Fisch is Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, Director of the Program in Plasma Physics at Princeton University, and Associate Director for Academic Affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).  Qin is Principle Research Physicist at PPPL and Lecturer with the rank of Professor in the Program in Plasma Physics.

A rare combination

“Yuan is the kind of student who teaches his advisors new things,” Fisch said.“Yuan’s thesis is a rare combination of significant advances in fundamental theory and computation, with profound recognition of connections between seemingly far-flung topics.  It is a textbook-quality thesis that advances our understanding of magnetized plasma implosions, plasma-based laser amplification, and numerical methods to describe strong-field QED plasmas.”

When asked what had led to his success, Shi said, “I am deeply indebted to my thesis advisors. As it turned out, in having two advisors, I benefited not just from the intersection of their research interests, but also from the union of their research interests and styles.  If working with Hong was more about elegant theories and algorithms, then working with Nat was more about imaginative ideas.  Together they enabled me to find synergies between quantum field theory and plasma physics, and thus to pursue a certain brand of research that would be hard to imagine as available in graduate programs anywhere else in the world.” 

New ideas and methods

Qin noted that “a contributing factor to Yuan’s success has been his ability to absorb the full range of scientific opportunities at Princeton,” said co-advisor Qin.  “Outside the plasma program, Yuan took more than 10 courses offered at Princeton University, which allowed him to bring new ideas and methods into his plasma research. Thus, his thesis introduced lattice QED [Quantum Electrodynamics] as a simulation tool, which, while unheard of in plasma physics, is well known in nuclear physics. He then used these techniques to model, among other phenomena, intense lasers interacting with plasmas.”

Shi earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Hong Kong, where he majored in physics and mathematics and minored in chemistry. His Ph.D. thesis research was supported in part through research grants from the National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), and the DOE Office of Science.

Shi is now a Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), where he and others are extending his thesis research in new directions. One direction is magnetized inertial confinement fusion (ICF), where external magnetic fields are imposed upon laser-driven plasma capsules with the hope of achieving higher fusion yield leading eventually to ignited plasma.

“The magnetic field may change laser-plasma interactions (LPI) and modify crossbeam laser energy transfer,” Shi said.  “This process, which was in part addressed in my thesis, needs to be understood and mitigated in order to attain the desired drive symmetry in ICF.”

Integrating fusion and quantum science

Another activity set in motion by Shi’s thesis lies in the integration of fusion energy science with quantum materials and devices, which has become a research priority in the field of plasma physics following the passage of the National Quantum Initiative Act by Congress.  At Livermore, Shi recently showed how the classic three-wave coupling in plasma that his thesis explored could be simulated on a quantum computer.  “Yuan’s thesis work on quantum plasmas actually anticipated the current interest in the field,” said Qin.  “His development of algorithms for quantum computers that solve plasma problems is now a remarkable new direction of research.”

Added Fisch, “Yuan’s thesis was indeed a remarkable achievement. But the real impact of his thesis may lie in what Yuan is now doing in his even more exciting postdoctoral work. He is bringing his ideas on laser plasma interactions to inform on experiments in magnetized imploding plasma in the most extreme environments of high magnetic fields and pressures. And he is formulating new algorithms for quantum computers. As proud as we were to have Yuan as a student, we are even prouder to see him shine now in his dazzling new research accomplishments.”

Shi will receive the Rosenbluth award during the annual meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics that will be held online in November.  The award is named for the pioneering physicist whose career included 13 years as a visiting research scientist at PPPL. Included in the award is $2,000, a certificate, and an invitation to present a talk to the conference.

Shi becomes the eighth graduate of the Program in Plasma Physics to receive the Rosenbluth honor since the APS first awarded it in 1986. Previous winners were: Carey Forest, 1992; Michael Beer, 1996; Mark Herrmann, 2000; Yang Ren, 2008; Jong-Kyu Park, 2010; Jonathan Squire, 2017; and Seth Davidovits, 2018. 

The Program in Plasma Physics is a graduate program within the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. Students are admitted directly to the program and are granted degrees through the Department of Astrophysical Sciences.  The program is based  at PPPL.

The award announcement appears on the APS website:  https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/rosenbluth.cfm

PPPL is mastering the art of using plasma — the fourth state of matter — to solve some of the world's toughest science and technology challenges. Nestled on Princeton University’s Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, New Jersey, our research ignites innovation in a range of applications including fusion energy, nanoscale fabrication, quantum materials and devices, and sustainability science. The University manages the Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the nation’s single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. Feel the heat at https://energy.gov/science  and  https://www.pppl.gov .  

Princeton alumna and postdoctoral fellow wins award for groundbreaking plasma physics

Elizabeth Paul, a groundbreaking physicist who is a 2015 alumna and a  2020 Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow  at Princeton University and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has won the prestigious and highly competitive 2021 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award.

Elizabeth Paul, a 2020 Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow and member of the Class of 2015

“I feel extremely honored to receive this award,” said Paul, who works with Amitava Bhattacharjee , a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton and the former Head of Theory at PPPL. “There’s only one plasma physicist every year who receives this award, and there are very many recent Ph.D. students who have done high-quality research.”

Paul, a native of Portland, Oregon, earned her undergraduate degree in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University in 2015 and her doctorate in physics from the University of Maryland in 2020.

“When I came to Princeton, I didn’t exactly know what I would major in,” she said. “But as a Princeton undergraduate, I was exposed to plasma physics research, and that had a big impact on my career.”

One aspect that drew her strongly to plasma physics and stellarators “is the potential benefit to humanity,” she said, echoing Princeton’s informal motto, “in the nation’s service and the service of humanity.”

“But also, plasma physics itself is a really interesting subject with a lot of complex phenomena,” she said. “There’s a lot of mathematical beauty that comes into understanding stellarators.”

Paul finds that combination of mathematical beauty and service compelling. “I enjoy problems that are at the intersection of the mathematical and the physical,” she said. “I like something that’s practical and that you can use some theoretical tools to understand. That’s what makes plasma physics such an exciting field.”

The award, presented by the American Physical Society, honors Paul’s dissertation, which applied a mathematical tool used to design cars and airplanes to advance the development of stellarators — twisty magnetic bottles that aim to produce on Earth the fusion energy that drives the sun and stars.

Fusion energy produced by stellarators — or more widely used doughnut-shaped tokamak devices, like the one at PPPL — could become a virtually limitless source of safe and clean power for generating electricity.

“Elizabeth has made a masterful contribution to stellarator design, combining an elegant mathematical technique that speeds up existing computational methods by orders of magnitude and implementing the method with physical insight to obtain striking results,” said Bhattacharjee. “Her thesis is unusual for its maturity and technical command.” 

The Marshall N. Rosenbluth award, named for a world leader in plasma physics , honors “exceptional young scientists who have performed original thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of plasma physics.” The award specifically recognizes Paul “for pioneering the development of adjoint methods and application of shape calculus for fusion plasmas, enabling a new derivative-based method of stellarator design.”

Paul is pursuing a variety of interests as a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow, a three-year designation that in her case will be funded by the University for the first two years, then PPPL for the third. “I have a lot of freedom and can study what I want to study,” she said. 

Her interests range from extending her dissertation work to understanding the transport of heat in chaotic magnetic fields and optimizing stellarators for experimental flexibility. In the coming months, she plans to study of energetic particles in stellarators with Bhattacharjee and Roscoe White, a recently retired PPPL physicist who is now a senior researcher.

For the past three years, Paul has been writing a book on stellarators with Adelle Wright, an associate research physicist at PPPL, and Lise-Marie Imbert-Gerard, a mathematics professor at the University of Arizona. The Simons Foundation in New York City supported this work and used an early version of their book in a summer school class co-sponsored by PPPL. 

PPPL, on Princeton University's Forrestal Campus in Plainsboro, N.J., is devoted to creating new knowledge about the physics of plasmas — ultra-hot, charged gases — and to developing practical solutions for the creation of fusion energy. The Laboratory is managed by the University for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science .

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Title: variational integrators in plasma physics.

Abstract: Variational integrators are a special kind of geometric discretisation methods applicable to any system of differential equations that obeys a Lagrangian formulation. In this thesis, variational integrators are developed for several important models of plasma physics: guiding centre dynamics (particle dynamics), the Vlasov-Poisson system (kinetic theory), and ideal magnetohydrodynamics (plasma fluid theory). Special attention is given to physical conservation laws like conservation of energy and momentum. Most systems in plasma physics do not possess a Lagrangian formulation to which the variational integrator methodology is directly applicable. Therefore the theory is extended towards nonvariational differential equations by linking it to Ibragimov's theory of integrating factors and adjoint equations. It allows us to find a Lagrangian for all ordinary and partial differential equations and systems thereof. Consequently, the applicability of variational integrators is extended to a much larger family of systems than envisaged in the original theory. This approach allows for the application of Noether's theorem to analyse the conservation properties of the system, both at the continuous and the discrete level. In numerical examples, the conservation properties of the derived schemes are analysed. In case of guiding centre dynamics, momentum in the toroidal direction of a tokamak is preserved exactly. The particle energy exhibits an error, but the absolute value of this error stays constant during the entire simulation. Therefore numerical dissipation is absent. In case of the kinetic theory, the total number of particles, total linear momentum and total energy are preserved exactly, i.e., up to machine accuracy. In case of magnetohydrodynamics, the total energy, cross helicity and the divergence of the magnetic field are preserved up to machine precision.

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Plasma Physics

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Plasmas, the fourth state of matter, are collections of freely moving charged particles (mainly electrons and ions) in which collective phenomena, such as waves and turbulence, often dominate the system’s behavior. The scientific study of plasmas involves a fascinating amalgam of classical and quantum mechanics, electricity and magnetism, fluid dynamics, hydrodynamics, atomic physics, applied mathematics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory, often combined in unique and innovative ways. Aside from being of intrinsic scientific interest, plasmas are also essential to many high-technology applications. One example is fusion energy, for which the fuel is a high-temperature plasma. Low-temperature plasmas are used for a growing number of materials fabrication processes, including the formation of complex microscopic and nanoscopic patterns for microelectronic and micro-optical components, and the deposition of tribological, magnetic, optical, conducting, insulating, polymeric, and catalytic thin-films. Plasmas are also important for illumination, display technology, microwave generation, destruction of toxic wastes, lasers, spacecraft propulsion, astrophysics, and advanced-design accelerators for fundamental particle research.

Applications of plasma science and technology meld several traditional scientific and engineering specialties. This program aims to provide strong interdisciplinary support and training for graduate students working in these areas. The scope of interest includes fundamental studies of plasmas, their interaction with surfaces and surroundings, and the technologies associated with their applications.

Academics and Research The faculty responsible for the teaching program hold positions within the Department of Astrophysical Sciences. Recognizable on the list of faculty are many names associated with classic textbooks or research papers in the field of plasma physics. Students can pursue research with the teaching faculty, associated faculty in other departments, or any of the nearly one hundred scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The Program in Plasma Physics emphasizes both basic physics and applications. There are opportunities for research projects in the physics of the very hot plasmas necessary for controlled nuclear fusion; projects in plasma astrophysics and solar, magnetospheric, and ionospheric physics; projects in plasma processing, plasma devices, plasma-laser interactions, materials research, and nonneutral plasmas; and projects in other emerging areas of plasma physics such as applications of artificial intelligence to the study of plasma turbulence and disruptions in fusion devices, and the extreme plasma physics essential to multi-messenger astronomy. With the field of fusion energy entering an exciting phase of burning plasma and technological implementation, increasing attention is paid to the practical engineering issues that will allow fusion reactors to become economically competitive.

Graduate students entering the Program in Plasma Physics spend the first two years in classroom study, acquiring a foundation in the many disciplines that comprise plasma physics: classical and quantum mechanics, electricity and magnetism, fluid dynamics, hydrodynamics, atomic physics, applied mathematics, statistical mechanics, and kinetic theory. The curriculum is supplemented by courses offered in other departments of the University and by a student-oriented seminar series in which PPPL physicists share their expertise and graduate students present their research.

In addition to formal classwork, first- and second-year graduate students work directly with the research staff, have full access to laboratory and computer facilities, and learn firsthand the job of a research physicist. First-year students typically assist in experimental research areas, and second-year students usually undertake a theoretical research project. Students must take and pass the Physics Department’s preliminary examination typically during their first year of study and the program’s general examination at the end of their second year of study. Upon passing the general exam, students concentrate on the research and writing of a doctoral thesis.

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Program offering: ph.d..

Students in the Program in Plasma Physics are not required to satisfy course requirements. Students are expected to take whatever courses they feel are necessary to prepare for the general examination or in accordance with research interests. In preparation for the preliminary examination in the Department of Physics, some students take graduate-level courses offered by the physics department in the fall.

Additional pre-generals requirements

The Department of Physics Preliminary Examination All students must pass the preliminary examination given by the physics department. This exam is given over two days and contains material on mechanics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Students typically take the exam in January of the first year, but a May examination is also offered.

Qualifying for the M.A.

The Master of Arts (M.A.) degree is normally an incidental degree on the way to full Ph.D. candidacy and is earned after successfully passing (a) the physics preliminary examination and (b) the written general examination. It may also be awarded to students who, for various reasons, leave the Ph.D. program, provided that these requirements have been met.

Post-Generals requirements

Thesis Proposal The thesis proposal takes place in the twelve months following the successful completion of the general examination. A completed thesis proposal consists of a written proposal and a proposal presentation.  The thesis committee notifies the student of the results of the thesis proposal immediately following the proposal presentation.

Dissertation and FPO

The Ph.D. is awarded after the candidate’s doctoral dissertation has been accepted and the final public oral examination sustained.

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For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

Department of Astrophysical Sciences

Ian Ochs wins highly competitive Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award

Ian Ochs, a 2022 graduate of the Program in Plasma Physics in the Princeton University Department of Astrophysical Sciences, has won the 2023 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award presented by the American Physical Society (APS). The highly competitive honor recognizes “exceptional early-career scientists who have performed original thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of plasma physics.” 

“I was really honored to be recognized, especially given the high standards set by past winners and the graduate research community,” said Ochs, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences. The nationwide award bears the name of Marshall Rosenbluth, a distinguished physicist whose career included research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) from 1967 to 1980.

Surfing the waves

A core part of the 353-page thesis, titled “Controlling and Exploiting Perpendicular Rotation in Magnetized Plasmas,” looks at wave-particle interactions. Ochs uses a surfing analogy to help explain the research. “When you succeed at surfing, you’re going at the same speed as the wave,” he said. “That allows you to exchange a lot of energy with the wave and get pushed along very fast.”

Previous theories have primarily focused on “resonant” particles, he said. However, most surfers are “non-resonant” and are just bobbing along as the wave goes by. His own research “focuses on the way we treat both the resonant particles — the successful surfers — and the non-resonant ones,” he said. This is important because there are a lot of non-resonant particles, and “the very small force on each of them has a disproportionate effect on the plasma as a whole.”

A key feature of the thesis distinguishes between interactions that cause plasma rotation and those that do not. Control of plasma rotation can be extremely useful, not only in fusion physics. Case in point: billions of dollars have been invested in ways to chemically separate high-level radioactive waste from less nasty waste for efficient and safe disposal of the millions of gallons of sludge stored in more than 175 underground tanks in Hanford, Washington.

“But you don’t have to deal with chemical complexities if you convert everything into a plasma, spin it up and remove the highly toxic waste through centrifugal forces,” Ochs said. “Knowing how to control rotation can thus be very important.”

Such concepts are widely appreciated. “Ian’s thesis has had an uncommon impact within several disciplines in our community,” said physicist Nat Fisch, Ochs’ thesis adviser and professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University and director of the Program in Plasma Physics. “For example, Ian’s explanations of escaping current and isorotation are being tested on Z-pinch experiments; his theorems on lower hybrid current drive in fusion facilities point to optimizations in tokamak reactors; and his theories of charge extraction by waves in magnetized plasma show how best to rotate plasma for centrifugal applications.”

Enduring educational accomplishment

“But these impacts are far more than additive,” Fisch said. The recognition of common physics themes across these seemingly disparate topics, drawn together with textbook quality derivations and written with engaging clarity, makes this thesis valuable not only as a compilation of many superb advances, but also as an enduring educational accomplishment,” Fisch said.

Ochs’ thesis, supported in part by research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the DOE Office of Science Fusion Energy Sciences program, has led to fruitful collaborations with researchers in the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Holon Institute of Technology in Israel and the University of Paris and the University of Toulouse in France. The U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, through a joint program with NSF, supported experimental research on related findings at the Weizmann Institute.

The Rosenbluth award marks the most recent high honor for Ochs, a native of Oreland, Pennsylvania. He won a Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship — the most prestigious honorific fellowship that Princeton awards annually — for his final graduate school year. As a graduate student, he also held a Princeton Centennial Fellowship and a DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship.

Ochs arrived at Princeton with a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University, earned magna cum laude. While at Harvard, he worked with Fisch one summer doing fusion research through the DOE’s National Undergraduate Fellowship in Plasma Physics. “I really loved the work I did that summer,” he recalled. “And going into graduate school, I felt the Program in Plasma Physics gave a lot of freedom to explore different aspects of plasma science while knowing that the work was going toward something that would be useful to humanity.”

Ochs became the ninth graduate of the Program in Plasma Physics to receive the Rosenbluth honor since the APS first awarded it in 1986. Previous winners were Cary Forest, 1992; Michael Beer, 1996; Mark Christopher Herrmann, 2000; Yang Ren, 2008; Jong-Kyu Park, 2010; Jonathan Squire, 2017; Seth Davidovits, 2018; and Yuan Shi, 2020.

The 2023 award includes $2,000 and an invitation to speak at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics (APS-DPP) annual meeting that begins Oct. 30 in Denver. The honor is announced on the APS website .

The Program in Plasma Physics is a graduate program based at PPPL. Students apply directly to the program and are granted degrees through the Department of Astrophysical Sciences.

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Mapping the depths of plasma physics

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Jack Hare  says running a science lab is rather like spelunking. In graduate school for plasma physics, at Imperial College London, he was part of the caving club. Each summer, he’d spend three weeks on an expedition to Slovenia, where they’d camp 600 meters underground for days at a time, mapping the subterranean labyrinths.

In 2021, after three postdoctoral fellowships, he joined MIT as an assistant professor of nuclear science and engineering. “Caving was a great experience,” he says. “I think the logistics side of those expeditions — planning everything, making sure everything’s in place, carrying everything into the cave — has actually been really useful for building my lab.”

Hare studies plasma, a high-energy gas in which atomic nuclei and electrons roam around separately. He notes that virtually all the matter in the universe — stars, nebulae, the debris orbiting black holes — is made of plasma. The team creates plasma in small quantities and watches what it does. “We can generate these extreme states of matter that can tell us something about how plasma behaves in the wider universe,” he says. He calls it “laboratory astrophysics.”

Plasma puffs

Once completed, the lab’s main instrument — a house-sized device called  PUFFIN  (the PUlser For Fundamental [Plasma Physics] INvestigations) — will store up electricity in large capacitors, then release close to a million amps — a million times more current than flows into a light bulb — through thin wires in a vacuum chamber, vaporizing it.

“This plasma is only around for a microsecond, a millionth of a second,” Hare says, “so you need to be able to probe it with some pretty fast diagnostics.” They’ll hit the plasma with brief laser pulses to create silhouettes behind it. With many experiments they can put together a mosaic. An image he created at another facility during his PhD won a prize in a science photography competition. “The nice thing about this subject is you can take pictures of the plasma, and just by looking at the picture you can learn something,” he says. “It’s a very visual subject.”

At Imperial College London, which he attended after an undergraduate degree in natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, he’d used a similar device called MAGPIE (Mega Ampere Generator for Plasma Implosion Experiments). MAGPIE was built in the 1980s as a prototype for a fusion reactor. It releases current faster than PUFFIN does, so plasma survives only a few tenths of a microsecond instead of a few microseconds. Such a brief span isn’t as suitable for studying long-lasting plasmas, like those found in space. (Plasma exists on Earth mostly in lightning.) MIT doesn’t have many plasma experiments at the moment, so when Hare proposed PUFFIN, they hired him.

MIT is clearing out a space at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center on campus, and PUFFIN will open for operation in 2023. In the meantime, Hare will use machines in Michigan and at Cornell University. Over the next two years, he also plans to run four experiments on a machine called Z, at Sandia National Laboratories. Each Z shot will release 25 million amps and cost around $1 million, in part because it destroys part of the machine. For planning, he’ll run lots of simulations on supercomputers. “If you do a million-dollar shot, and your picture is blank, you’ve got some questions to answer,” he says. You don’t want to be deep underground without your lunch.

Making connections

The focus of Hare’s PhD was magnetic reconnection, a process in which plasma breaks and reforms magnetic fields. In 2015, he predicted that in his experiments, he’d see a uniform reconnection layer, but instead the layer was wobbly. At a conference that year, Nuno Loureiro, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT, presented theoretical results showing that it should be wobbly. Hare and his advisor approached Loureiro afterward to ask what he thought of their data. “He looked at it, and he was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ Because at that time there had not been any other experimental observations of this instability,” Hare says. Hare and Loureiro now collaborate.

Hare doesn’t work directly with observational astrophysicists. The behavior he observes is similar across scales of space and time, and he notes that experiments in wind tunnels can tell you how a full-size airplane will fly, but for him the difference is not between centimeters (model planes) and meters (real ones), but between centimeters and light years. Describing his relationship with observational astrophysicists, he says, “we are working on such different systems, it’s quite hard for us to speak the same fundamental language.” Instead, he talks to theorists, like Loureiro. “You kind of need a theorist to interpret both sides so that they can meet in the middle.”

Despite Hare’s focus on understanding the wider universe, his work may have practical applications. Magnetic reconnection happens on the sun, sometimes releasing plasma in the form of coronal mass ejections that can disrupt satellites and Earthly electronics. Understanding reconnection might better predict such solar storms. Plasma also occurs in fusion reactors, and basic plasma physics can improve computer models of fusion. “So before we actually build a billion-dollar fusion reactor, we can simulate it and see whether it works.”

Spelunking has one more connection to science. “In caving, it’s a really special feeling when you go to a passage where no one has ever been before,” Hare says. Beautiful formations await discovery. “In physics, sometimes you have some data and you realize you now understand something that no one else in the world does. And then, of course, the important thing is to tell everyone about it.”

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Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award

This award recognizes exceptional early-career scientists who have performed original thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of plasma physics. The award consists of $2,000, a certificate, and a registration waiver to give an invited talk on the recipient’s doctoral research at the annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (DPP), and receive the award at the DPP awards banquet.

Rules and eligibility

Nominations will be accepted for any doctoral student of a college or university in the United States or for a United States student abroad who has successfully passed his/her final thesis defense within the preceding 24 months of the current nomination deadline. The work to be considered must have been performed as part of the requirements for a doctoral degree. Nomination packages should include a copy of the candidate's thesis. Nominations will be considered for two review cycles provided the nominator re-certifies the nomination before the next deadline. Updated letters of support may be submitted for the second cycle.

Process and selection

The nomination package should include:

• APS Prizes and Awards nomination form (nominee’s contact information, thesis date).
• Your letter of not more than 1,000 words evaluating the nominee's qualifications for the award.
• At least two, but no more than four, seconding letters of not more than 1000 words each. Primary and seconding letters exceeding 1000 words will not be considered in the evaluation of nominees.
• The nominee's thesis.
• A list of the nominee's publications and presentations related to the thesis.

Selection Committee

• Peng Zhang (Chair)
• Felicie Albert
• Nathaniel Fisch
• Dustin Froula

Establishment and support

This award was established in 1985 (originally as the Simon Ramo Award and formerly as the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis in Plasma Physics Award) and endowed in 1997 by General Atomics Inc .

Recent recipients

Ian emanuel ochs.

2023 recipient

For developing rigorous constraints on charge extraction across magnetic fields and powerful theorems relating lower hybrid current drive to alpha channeling, and for studying unusual transport effects with diverse applications in multi-species magnetized plasmas.

Alison R. Christopherson

2022 recipient

For theories of fusion alpha heating and metrics to assess proximity to thermonuclear ignition in inertially confined plasmas, and for the development of a novel measurement of hot electron preheat and its spatial distribution in direct-drive laser fusion.

Elizabeth Paul

2021 recipient

For pioneering the development of adjoint methods and application of shape calculus for fusion plasmas, enabling a new derivative-based method of stellarator design.

2020 recipient

For elegantly describing three-wave coupling in plasma modified by oblique magnetic fields, identifying applications including plasma-based laser amplifiers, and adapting quantum field theory to describe plasma physics in the strong-field regime.

2019 recipient

For the development of electron-plasma-based techniques to study two-dimensional vortex dynamics in the presence of strong external flows and for investigation of the stability and self-organization of vortices in strain flows.

The membership of APS is diverse and global, and the nominees and recipients of APS Honors should reflect that diversity so that all are recognized for their impact on our community. Nominations of members belonging to groups traditionally underrepresented in physics, such as women, LGBT+ scientists, scientists who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), disabled scientists, scientists from institutions with limited resources, and scientists from outside the United States, are especially encouraged.

Nominees for and holders of APS Honors (prizes, awards, and fellowship) and official leadership positions are expected to meet standards of professional conduct and integrity as described in the APS Ethics Guidelines . Violations of these standards may disqualify people from consideration or lead to revocation of honors or removal from office.

Join your Society

If you embrace scientific discovery, truth and integrity, partnership, inclusion, and lifelong curiosity, this is your professional home.

PhD thesis work at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching or in Greifswald is offered in conjunction with various universities. From 2010 until 2020 a total of 154 PhD theses were done at IPP.  

Scientific work is conducted at IPP in Garching or Greifswald and is supervised by IPP staff. At universities, particularly Aachen/Jena (RWTH/FSU), Augsburg, Bayreuth, Berlin (TU), Greifswald, Karlsruhe, München (LMU, TU) and Ulm as well as in Gent (Belgium), DTU (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), Vienna (Austria), KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) and  University of Science and Technology of China, PhD students are represented by lecturers or professors who are affiliated to or work closely with IPP.

PhD students participate at IPP in interdisciplinary teamwork and are involved in cooperation projects on the national, European and international levels. The graduates work in groups engaged in different areas of research. Within each group they are supervised by tutors who, as required, also arrange contacts with other institutes. Besides being provided with regular seminars and colloquia, they are also given support to attend national and international conferences. A number of staff members of IPP or partners in collaboration are lecturers or professors at universities or polytechnics and can provide information on organisation relating to these.

• The International Helmholtz Graduate School for Plasma Physics , organised by IPP together with Technical University Munich and Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald offers a PhD course in plasma physics and fusion research in Garching and Greifswald.
• IPP at Garching and Greifswald is one of the partners of the new "International Doctoral College in Fusion Science and Engineering" ( Fusion DC ) under the auspices of Erasmus Mundus, the European programme to promote training schemes.
• IPP is a Member of the European Fusion Education Network ( FUSENET ) for coordinating training in fusion research and technology throughout Europe.
• IPP is one of the founders of the Munich School for Data Science ( MUDS ). The aim of MuDS is to combine training in Data Science with training in application domain areas, namely plasma physics, biomedicine, robotics and earth observation, to educate the next generation of data scientists.

PhD contracts are limited to three years (see contract conditions of IPP). PhDNet of the Max Planck Society The PhDNet is the voice of and for PhD students of the Max Planck Society (MPG). The PhDNet represents PhD students' interests and communicates PhD-student related issues to the President of the Max Planck Society and other MPG-officials. Current concerns are, for example, quality of supervision, the contract situation and scientific exchange. More information under www.phdnet.mpg.de

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Princeton Program in Plasma Physics

Degree requirements.

Students in the Program in Plasma Physics are not required to satisfy course requirements. Students are expected to take whatever courses they feel are necessary to prepare for the General Examination or in accordance with research interests. In preparation for the Physics Department Preliminary Examination, some students take graduate-level courses offered by the Physics Department in the Fall. Additionally, courses are usually taken with the pass/d/fail option, and there are no grade point average requirements for students in the program.

Physics Department Graduate Preliminary Examination

All students must pass the preliminary examination given by the Physics Department. This exam is given over two days and contains material on mechanics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics and statistical mechanics. Students typically take the exam in January of the first year, but a May examination is also offered. The Program in Plasma Physics organizes review sessions given by the second-year students in the Fall to prepare the first-year students for the exam.

More information about the Physics Department Preliminary Examination, including previous years' exams, can be found at the Department of Physics' website .

Plasma Physics General Examination

Generals are taken in the May of the second year and consist of:

• Two 4-hour written sessions
• One 30-60 minute oral session

The professors on the examining committee for the oral session determine whether a student passes. After passing Generals, a student may apply for the incidental M.A. degree. Students prepare for the Generals by forming review groups and by taking graduate courses in plasma physics in their first two years.

Thesis Topic and Proposal

The identification of a thesis project and thesis advisor is technically required to be determined nine months after passing the Generals Examinations.  A thesis proposal is then technically required within six-nine months following a student's decision to select a thesis project.  

A completed thesis proposal consists of a written proposal and an oral presentation before a thesis proposal committee, faculty, and current peers.  

Passing is determined by the members of the student's thesis committee immediately after the proposal presentation is given.

Dissertation

Guidelines for submitting the Doctoral Dissertation and format requirements are given on the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library's website .

Final Public Oral Examination

A final public oral examination includes the formal submission of a written thesis and a formal presentation before a thesis examining committee, faculty, and other researchers, and peers.  The successful award of the PhD is determined by the thesis committee. 

Specific guidelines for the Ph.D. defense are outlined on this Graduate School webpage .

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Bubbling, frothing and sloshing: Long-hypothesized plasma instabilities finally observed

by Raphael Rosen, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

Whether between galaxies or within doughnut-shaped fusion devices known as tokamaks, the electrically charged fourth state of matter known as plasma regularly encounters powerful magnetic fields, changing shape and sloshing in space. Now, a new measurement technique using protons, subatomic particles that form the nuclei of atoms, has captured details of this sloshing for the first time, potentially providing insight into the formation of enormous plasma jets that stretch between the stars.

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) created detailed pictures of a magnetic field bending outward because of the pressure created by expanding plasma. As the plasma pushed on the magnetic field, bubbling and frothing known as magneto-Rayleigh Taylor instabilities arose at the boundaries, creating structures resembling columns and mushrooms.

Then, as the plasma's energy diminished, the magnetic field lines snapped back into their original positions. As a result, the plasma was compressed into a straight structure resembling the jets of plasma that can stream from ultra-dense dead stars known as black holes and extend for distances many times the size of a galaxy. The results suggest that those jets, whose causes remain a mystery, could be formed by the same compressing magnetic fields observed in this research.

"When we did the experiment and analyzed the data, we discovered we had something big," said Sophia Malko, a PPPL staff research physicist and lead scientist on the paper.

"Observing magneto-Rayleigh Taylor instabilities arising from the interaction of plasma and magnetic fields had long been thought to occur but had never been directly observed until now. This observation helps confirm that this instability occurs when expanding plasma meets magnetic fields. We didn't know that our diagnostics would have that kind of precision. Our whole team is thrilled."

"These experiments show that magnetic fields are very important for the formation of plasma jets," said Will Fox, a PPPL research physicist and principal investigator of the research reported in Physical Review Research . "Now that we might have insight into what generates these jets, we could, in theory, study giant astrophysical jets and learn something about black holes."

PPPL has expertise in developing and building diagnostics, sensors that measure properties like density and temperature in plasma in a range of conditions. This achievement is one of several in recent years that illustrates how the Lab is advancing measurement innovation in plasma physics.

Using a new technique to produce unprecedented detail

The team improved a measurement technique known as proton radiography by creating a new variation for this experiment that would allow for extremely precise measurements. To create the plasma, the team shone a powerful laser at a small disk of plastic. To produce protons, they shone 20 lasers at a capsule containing fuel made of varieties of hydrogen and helium atoms. As the fuel heated up, fusion reactions occurred and produced a burst of both protons and intense light known as X-rays.

The team also installed a sheet of mesh with tiny holes near the capsule. As the protons flowed through the mesh, the outpouring was separated into small, separate beams that were bent because of the surrounding magnetic fields. By comparing the distorted mesh image to an undistorted image produced by X-rays, the team could understand how the magnetic fields were pushed around by the expanding plasma, leading to whirl-like instabilities at the edges.

"Our experiment was unique because we could directly see the magnetic field changing over time," Fox said. "We could directly observe how the field gets pushed out and responds to the plasma in a type of tug of war."

Diversifying a research portfolio

The findings exemplify how PPPL is expanding its focus to include research focused on high energy density (HED) plasma. Such plasmas, like the one created in this experiment's fuel capsule, are hotter and denser than those used in fusion experiments. "HED plasma is an exciting area of growth for plasma physics," Fox said.

"This work is part of PPPL's efforts to advance this field. The results show how the Laboratory can create advanced diagnostics to give us new insights into this type of plasma, which can be used in laser fusion devices, as well as in techniques that use HED plasma to create radiation for microelectronics manufacturing."

"PPPL has an enormous amount of knowledge and experience in magnetized plasmas that can contribute to the field of laser-produced HED plasmas and help make significant contributions," Fox said.

"HED science is complex, fascinating and key to understanding a wide range of phenomena," said Laura Berzak Hopkins, PPPL's associate laboratory director for strategy and partnerships and deputy chief research officer. "It's incredibly challenging to both generate these conditions in a controlled manner and develop advanced diagnostics for precision measurements. These exciting results demonstrate the impact of integrating PPPL's breadth of technical expertise with innovative approaches."

More experiments and better simulations

The researchers plan to work on future experiments that will help improve models of expanding plasma . "Scientists have assumed that in these situations, density and magnetism vary directly, but it turns out that that's not true," Malko said.

"Now that we have measured these instabilities very accurately, we have the information we need to improve our models and potentially simulate and understand astrophysical jets to a higher degree than before," Malko said. "It's interesting that humans can make something in a laboratory that usually exists in space."

Collaborators included researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles, the Sorbonne University, Princeton University and the University of Michigan.

Journal information: Physical Review Research

Provided by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

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Office of the Dean for Research

Dean for research peter schiffer assumes role as vice president for princeton plasma physics laboratory.

Peter Schiffer. Photo by Sameer A. Khan

Peter Schiffer, Princeton’s dean for research and the Class of 1909 Professor of Physics, will succeed David McComas as Princeton University’s vice president for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL),  a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory managed by Princeton University. Schiffer will maintain his dean for research role. The transition will take place on Sept. 2. 

McComas will conclude his PPPL leadership role to focus on the successful completion and launch of NASA’s Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP). McComas is the principal investigator for the IMAP mission, which is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral next year to advance understanding of the space environment in our solar neighborhood.

“I am grateful to David McComas for stewarding the University’s relationship with the Plasma Physics Laboratory and the Department of Energy so conscientiously over the past eight years,” said Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber. “Dave’s outstanding scientific acumen, administrative skill, and personal integrity have benefited us tremendously over the course of his tenure. I wish him well as he devotes himself full-time to his research program, and I look forward to working with Peter Schiffer as he adds this new role to his portfolio.”

David McComas

Photo by Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy

As PPPL vice president since 2016, McComas has served as a liaison between senior University leadership, the laboratory and the Department of Energy. At Princeton, his executive leadership has included service as a member of the President’s cabinet and the Executive Compliance Committee. 

PPPL conducts essential research using plasma — the fourth state of matter — to solve some of the world’s toughest science and technology challenges, including the development of fusion energy as a clean, safe and virtually limitless power source.

“I feel great about the contributions I made in overseeing PPPL as a University vice president, but I also feel that after eight and a half years, it’s time for me to focus on my other primary job,” he said. “PPPL is vital to the national interest, and it’s also vital to the national interest that we get IMAP launched and working perfectly. It’s critical for NASA heliophysics and space science, and as the principal investigator, I’m responsible for the entire mission.”

Since coming to Princeton, McComas has been a half-time vice president and half-time professor of astrophysical sciences. As he transitions to a full-time role on the astrophysics faculty, he will continue leading his roughly 35-person research team, teaching his unique  space physics  undergraduate lab, and serving as the mission leader for IMAP and other NASA missions and instruments. After he steps down as vice president, McComas will be a special adviser to the provost and continue to serve on the boards of directors for both PPPL and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

“Dave’s expertise has been timely, important and valued,” said Princeton Provost Jennifer Rexford, who is also the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor in Engineering. “PPPL’s research mission, working toward an efficient and clean energy source, is critically important for humanity. Dave is a deep scientist in his own right, and he also understands all the engineering and operational issues involved in working at the leading edge of technology.”

Schiffer was the logical choice to succeed him as vice president for PPPL, Rexford said.

She noted that the scope of research at PPPL has diversified in the past several years, incorporating research into microelectronics, quantum sensors and devices, and sustainability science. 

“The widening of the research going on at the Lab has increased opportunities for connection with campus,” she said. “That stronger connection benefits from going through the Office of the Dean for Research.” 

Leadership at PPPL

Over the past eight years, McComas has worked with University and PPPL leadership to strengthen the connections between the Lab and the campus. “PPPL is an important part of the future of the University,” McComas said. “The University is interested in advances that make a huge difference for humanity, and it has a very long view of things. That’s exactly what fusion energy needs.” 

McComas is a renowned space physicist and the principal investigator on multiple NASA instruments and missions. He holds seven patents and has published more than 800 peer-reviewed papers with more than 50,000 citations. Prior to coming to Princeton, he served in a variety of leadership roles at Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Southwest Research Institute.

In addition to overseeing PPPL’s research mission, he has secured two contract extensions with the DOE and led the international search that that brought the renowned fusion scientist Sir Steven Cowley to PPPL as its director.

“Dave has been a steadfast partner during a period of rapid expansion at the Laboratory,” said Cowley, who is also a professor of astrophysical sciences at the University. “PPPL is tackling global issues in the nation’s interest, contributing to a sustainable future while driving scientific innovation forward. Dave’s inventive mindset, coupled with his strong organizational leadership, has been an asset to PPPL during a critical time.” 

With fusion energy at an inflection point, “it’s an exciting time at PPPL,” McComas said. Unprecedented numbers of public-private partnership grants are helping to advance fusion science and engineering at the Lab, he said, adding that the growing number of private companies working in the sector indicates that investors are confident that technologies are advancing toward bringing fusion energy to the national grid.

McComas and IMAP

Several months ago, as McComas saw both of his major responsibilities — PPPL and IMAP — coming to critical points, he felt that it was time to focus his energies on the space physics to which he has devoted his academic career.

IMAP’s mission is to explore our solar neighborhood, by decoding the messages in particles captured from the Sun and from beyond our cosmic shield, the heliopause. After  its launch , IMAP will provide extensive new observations of the inner and outer heliosphere and answer two of the most important topics in space physics today: how energetic particles are accelerated in the solar wind, and how the solar wind interacts with the local interstellar medium. 

The roughly $750 million IMAP mission carries 10 cutting-edge scientific  instruments and will launch from Cape Canaveral in 2025 on a Falcon 9 Heavy rocket. In addition to resolving fundamental scientific questions, IMAP will make real-time observations of the space environment a million miles sunward of the Earth, providing critical advance warning of impending space weather events. 

In his career, McComas has led the TWINS and IBEX space physics missions as well as instruments for numerous other missions, including Parker Solar Probe to the sun, the Advanced Composition Explorer to study spaceborne energetic particles, Ulysses to view the sun from outside the ecliptic, New Horizons to and past Pluto, Juno to Jupiter, and Cassini to Saturn.

Among many other honors, he has received the  Arctowski Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, the  Distinguished Scientist Award from the Scientific Committee on Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the International Science Council, and the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Schiffer and PPPL

With an active research program in the Department of Physics in addition to his administrative roles, Schiffer is an eminent condensed matter physicist who holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.S. from Yale.

Prior to coming to Princeton in 2023, he served as a member of the faculty and an administrator at Yale University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Pennsylvania State University. He currently also serves on the governing board of the American Physical Society and previously served as a senior fellow with the Association of American Universities.

Schiffer leads the Office of the Dean for Research, which supports the Princeton research enterprise by expanding access to funding and other resources, building research relationships with external partners, facilitating regulatory and policy compliance, and supporting innovation, entrepreneurship and the development of intellectual property. 

He said he looks forward to continuing PPPL’s long legacy of research in the nation’s service, expanding its academic affiliation with the University and building on its importance as a regional economic hub. “Princeton has been the steward of the Lab since it was founded back in the ’50s,” Schiffer said. “It is part of the University’s scientific legacy and tradition to have PPPL as a critical part of our overall research portfolio; it provides research opportunities for undergrads, graduate students and postdocs. With its hundreds of employees and global scientific reputation, PPPL also has a big economic footprint within our community.”

He continued: “PPPL is a very important part of Princeton’s intellectual ecosystem, and we’re honored to have the opportunity to manage the Lab for the nation and support the great science that comes out of it.”