Announcement: The 2016 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics

Ellen Zweibel is the William L. Kraushaar Professor of Astronomy and Physics and the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned an A.B. in mathematics from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences (1977) from Princeton University. After a postdoctoral appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1977 to 1978 and a staff appointment at the High-Altitude Observatory, she was a member of the faculty at the University of Colorado from 1981 to 2003, where she was also a Fellow of JILA, before she moved to the University of Wisconsin in 2003. Professor Zweibel is a pioneer in understanding astronomical magnetic fields and collective aspects of cosmic ray behavior. She has broad research interests that include the study of the sun and stars, galaxies, and the physics of galaxy clusters and is a leader in the developments of plasma physics applied to astrophysics. In addition to research in theoretical astrophysics, she was founding member and past director of the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization and served as the chair of University of Wisconsin Department of Astronomy from 2013 to 2016.

The citation for the 2016 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics reads as follows:

Professor Ellen Zweibel's many contributions to plasma physics and hydrodynamics have helped define the field of plasma astrophysics. Early in her career, Zweibel formulated the theory of hydrodynamic waves in molecular clouds and showed the importance of magnetic fields and long lived Alfvén waves to the damping of astrophysical waves. She analyzed the stability of stellar atmospheres, described the formation of thin current sheets due to small perturbations in the photosphere, presented the first theoretical study of magnetic reconnection in partially ionized gas in an astrophysical context, and derived general thermodynamic properties of Alfvén waves in interstellar space. Zweibel's interests in the generation and evolution of astrophysical magnetic fields and in the acceleration and propagation of cosmic rays led to pioneering work on the influence of ionization fronts on the generation of primordial magnetic fields in proto-galaxies and the equipartition of cosmic ray and magnetic fields mediated through small-scale hydrodynamic turbulence.

Zweibel is one of the great communicators of plasma astrophysics. Collaborating with the radio astronomer Carl Heiles, Zweibel and Heiles brought wide attention to astronomical magnetic fields in their influential review¹ “Magnetic fields in galaxies and beyond.” This review brought to light the many fascinating and controversial questions involving magnetic fields in galaxies and, also, the observational tests that could discriminate between competing theories will challenge the capabilities of new telescopes. In 1998, Zweibel's invited tutorial presentation² introduced the hydrodynamics of the magnetized interstellar medium to the APS Division of Plasmas Physics at the 40th Annual Meeting held in New Orleans. Ten years later, the tremendous progress in understanding cosmic magnetic fields was summarized in the review, written with long-time colleague Russell Kulsrud, titled “On the origin of cosmic magnetic fields.”³ The APS Division of Plasma Physics was fortunate to have Zweibel lecture again at the 54th Annual Meeting held in Providence, RI, where she presented a review of microphysics and macrophysics of cosmic rays⁴ on the occasion of the hundredth year of cosmic ray astrophysics. At this meeting, Zweibel described the collective aspects of cosmic ray behavior. Her clear presentation showed the underlying plasma physics connecting cosmic ray astrophysics and the instabilities and acceleration processes found in laboratory plasma physics. Zweibel's insightful leadership and active collaboration with laboratory plasma experimentalists is well recognized and motivated her two review papers, written with last year's Maxwell Prize winner Masaaki Yamada, connecting the physics of magnetic reconnection in astrophysical and laboratory plasmas.^5,6

Professor Ellen Zweibel is a Fellow of the APS and serves the physics community in many capacities. In addition to her research achievements, she was co-coordinator of two programs at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics: Dynamos (2008) and Astrophysical Turbulence (2000). Zweibel served as Councilor of the American Astronomical Society (2000–2003), as member of Executive Committee of the Plasma Physics Division of the APS (2006–2009), as Associate Editor of Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics (1985-present), Physics of Plasmas (1999–2007), Astrophysical Journal Letters (2007–2012), and Reports on Progress in Physics (2016-present). The plasma physics community is fortunate to have had the service of Zweibel on boards of the National Research Council, including the Advocacy Panel on the Physics of the Sun (1981), the Decadal Survey Panel on Theory and Laboratory Astrophysics (1989), the Decadal Survey Panel on Solar Astronomy (1989), the Decadal Survey Panel on Solar Physics (1999), the Committee on Linkages Between Mathematics and the Sciences (1998–1999), the Burning Plasma Assessment Committee (2002–2003), and NRC Space Studies Board (2008–2011). While teaching and mentoring young physicists at the University of Wisconsin, Zweibel is also serving on the National Ignition Facility Discovery Science Portfolio Review Committee, the Advisory Council for the Basic Plasma Science Facility, and the Fusion Energy Science Advisory Committee for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.