News
POP Editorial Board Members Sergei Krasheninnikov and Xavier Garbet awarded the EPS Hannes Alfvén Prize
AIP Publishing and the Editors of Physics of Plasmas congratulate Physics of Plasmas Editorial Board Members Professor Sergei Krasheninnikov and Professor Xavier Garbet, who are the 2021 and 2022 recipients of the Hannes Alfvén Prize from the European Physical Society. Read the announcements here: http://plasma.ciemat.es/eps/
The 2021 award recognizes Sergei's
“Seminal contributions to the plasma physics of the scrape-off layer and divertor in magnetically confined fusion (MCF) experiments, including the physics of “blobs”, divertor plasma detachment, and dust, together with atomic physics effects.”
The 2022 award recognizes Xavier's
“Important contributions to the theory of the mesoscopic dynamics of magnetically confined fusion (MCF) plasmas: specifically, to understanding turbulence spreading, flux-driven gyrokinetic simulations, transport barriers, up-gradient transport and edge instabilities.”
Congratulations Sergei and Xavier!
POP Editorial Board Member Omar Hurricane awarded the 2021 Edward Teller Award
AIP Publishing and the Editors of Physics of Plasmas congratulate Editorial Board Member Professor Omar Hurricane for receiving the 2021 Edward Teller Award from the American Nuclear Society. Read the announcement here: https://www.llnl.gov/news/physicist-omar-hurricane-receives-prestigious-edward-teller-award
The award recognizes Omar's
“Visionary scientific insights and leadership of National Ignition Facility (NIF) experiments resulting in the achievement of fuel gain, an alpha-heating-dominated plasma, and a burning plasma.”
Congratulations Omar!
POP Editorial Board Member, Taik Soo Hahm, awarded the 2021 Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics
Physics of Plasmas congratulates Editorial Board Member Taik Soo Hahm for receiving the 2021 Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics "For his outstanding contribution to the understanding of turbulence and confinement physics in tokamak plasmas, i.e., notably, flow shearing effects and non-local transport processes, as well as to the pioneering development of modern nonlinear gyrokinetic theories." Read the announcement here
POP Welcomes Scott Baalrud, Stephanie Hansen, and Sterling Smith
Scott Baalrud is an Associate Professor in the Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department at the University of Michigan. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, receiving a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering and Mathematics (2006), followed by M.S. (2008), and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Physics (2010). After graduation, he furthered his training as a DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of New Hampshire and as a Feynman Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory before joining the University of Iowa as an Assistant Professor in 2013. His research concerns the theoretical foundations of plasma physics, with a focus on kinetic theory. It connects with several applications, including strongly coupled plasmas, sheaths, warm dense matter and magnetic reconnection. His research and teaching accomplishments have been acknowledged by the Thomas H. Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Physics Research (2020), the Hershkowitz Early Career Award and Review (2018) and the University of Iowa’s Distinguished Mentor Award (2016) and Early Career Scholar of the Year Award (2017). He is actively engaged in the APS Division of Plasma Physics, having served as a co-chair of the APS-DPP community planning process, as member at large of the executive committee, as topical group chair of the program committee, as chair of the Dawson prize committee, and as a member of the fellowship selection committee. In addition to Physics of Plasmas, he currently serves on the Editorial Board of Plasma Sources Science and Technology.
Stephanie Hansen is a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff in the ICF target design group at Sandia National Laboratories, where she studies the atomic-scale behavior of atoms in extreme environments and develops atomic, spectroscopic, equation-of-state, and transport models to help predict and diagnose the behavior of high energy-density plasmas. She is the author and developer of the SCRAM non-LTE spectroscopic modeling code and MUZE, a self-consistent field code used for equation-of-state, scattering, and transport calculations. She received an Early Career grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences in 2014, was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2017, and was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics in 2019. She holds degrees in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Nevada, Reno and has been a Visiting Associate Professor at Cornell University since 2012.
Sterling Smith grew up in Utah. After high school he spent two years in the Dominican Republic then went on to graduate from Utah State University with a Bachelor's in Physics and a Minor in Mathematics. For graduate school, he attended Princeton University, earning a Master's and Ph.D. in Astrophysical Sciences (Program in Plasma Physics); his thesis on MHD stability was awarded the Ray Grimm Memorial Prize in Computational Physics. He is currently a scientist at General Atomics, employed in the experimental sciences (DIII-D) division. His main physics research involves the validation of transport models for tokamak plasmas. In pursuit of streamlining experimental analysis, model evaluation, and code sharing, he has co-developed the OMFIT framework, which is quickly becoming a framework of choice for the analysis of both domestic and international tokamak experiments. As the main reviewer of OMFIT code (via GitHub pull requests), he earned the award "He sees you when you're coding; he knows which scripts you break" from DIII-D management as nominated by other OMFIT developers. Outside of work, Sterling is active with his wife and 5 children in church and sports activities.