Dmitri Ryutov worked for 22 years at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, until his retirement from the position of a distinguished member of technical staff in 2016. He received his M.S. degree in nuclear physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1962, and his Ph.D. degree in plasma theory from the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy in 1966. From 1968 to 1993, he worked at Russia's Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, where he significantly strengthened the Institute's fusion research program. Dr. Ryutov was the first Chair of the Department of Plasma Physics at Novosibirsk University, and he guided a great many students now working in Russia, the United States, and Europe. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Dr. Ryutov moved to the United States and continued to make innovative and insightful contributions to fusion research and plasma physics. Dr. Ryutov has broad research interests and has made pioneering contributions to many areas of plasma physics, including confinement and stability in open magnetic mirror traps, tokamak divertors, the interaction of magnetized plasma with relativistic particle beams, Z-pinches, laboratory astrophysics, solar and space physics, as well as to the x-ray optics and magnetic levitation.
The citation for the 2017 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics reads
“For many outstanding contributions to the theoretical plasma physics of low and high energy density plasmas, open and closed magnetic configurations, and laboratory and astrophysical systems.”
Dr. Ryutov's distinguished career is noted for deep theoretical insights and creative inventions that have profoundly impacted on the field. His research has influenced nearly every topic within plasma physics and advanced both magnetic and inertial fusion energy research. During his years at Kurchatov, he participated in developing nonlinear theory of plasma turbulence and, in particular, of the nonlinear “explosive” instability.1 While at the Budker Institute, Ryutov and his students pioneered the theory of the collisionless relaxation of relativistic and ultra-relativistic electron beams in a plasma2,3 established a theory of resonant and stochastic particle diffusion in tandem mirrors,4 and suggested the concept of a Gas Dynamic Trap;5 Ryutov and Sagdeev produced a theory of relaxation of fast electrons propagating in Solar atmosphere.6 Since early 1990s Ryutov explored the physics at the boundaries of magnetically confined plasma, with adjacent areas of closed and open magnetic field lines. Working with his colleagues, Ryutov explored drift instabilities at the tokamak's scrape-off layer, where the fascinating physics of the fusion boundary was a perfect match to Dr. Ryutov's curiosity and creativity.7,8 At LLNL, he helped to develop the transport equations for the tokamak edge plasma,9 explored the possibility of beneficial plasma convection in the divertor region,10,11 and invented the “snowflake” divetor,12 which has become one of the leading divertor configurations optimized for fusion energy systems.
Dr. Ryutov's research at LLNL also prompted important contributions to the physics of high-energy density plasmas and resulted in three highly influential articles: the review of “The physics of fast Z pinches” written with Mark Derzon and M. Keith Matzen,13 Ryutov's invited presentation at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the DPP in Quebec City titled “Magnetohydrodynamic scaling: From astrophysics to the laboratory,”14 and the review written with Bruce Remington and Paul Drake titled “Experimental astrophysics with high power lasers and Z pinches.”15
Dr. Dmitri Ryutov is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, an Edward Teller Fellow from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and an Academician of the Soviet (later Russian) Academy of Sciences. In 2010, he received the Distinguished Career Award from the Fusion Power Associates in recognition of decades of career contributions to fusion research and development in both the U.S. and former Soviet Union. Ryutov's research inventions have been recognized as co-recipient of three R&D100 awards, including for Inductrack Magnetic Levitation System in 2004; x-ray optics and diagnostics for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in 2010; and the Snowflake divertor in 2012. He was invited to present a lecture on this topic, titled “Using plasma physics to weigh the photon,”16 at the 34th Meeting of the European Physical Society (EPS) Conference on Plasma Physics. Ryutov was also invited to present the historic lecture “Landau damping: half a century with the great discovery”17 at the 25th Meeting of the EPS in 1998.
Dmitri Ryutov has published over 50 articles in the Physics of Plasmas and the Physics of Fluids B-Plasma Physics. The plasma physics community is fortunate to have benefited from such a great many fundamental contributions. We are also grateful for his service as Associate Editor and Member of the Editorial Board of the Physics of Plasmas for almost two decades. Dmitri Ryutov's James Clerk Maxwell Prize address was titled “Scaling Laws for Dynamical Plasma Phenomena,” a subject of personal interest18 and fundamental interest across the field of plasma physics.
