| The James Clerk Maxwell Prize in Plasma Physics | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Outstanding contributions to the field of Plasma Physics |
| Presented by | American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics |
| Country | United States |
| First awarded | 1975 |
| Official website | http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/maxwell.cfm |
The James Clerk Maxwell Prize in Plasma Physics is an annual American Physical Society award given in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of Plasma Physics. It was established in 1975 by Maxwell Technologies, Inc, in honor of the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell. It is currently sponsored by General Atomics. The prize includes of a $10,000 USD monetary award and recognition at the annual American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference.
| Year | Recipient | Country | Rationale | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Lyman Spitzer | United States | For his pioneering investigations of the behavior of plasma and guiding and inspiring a generation of plasma physicists through his research and leadership in the controlled thermonuclear program. | [1][2] |
| 1976 | Marshall Nicholas Rosenbluth | United States | [3] | |
| 1977 | John M. Dawson | United States | [4] | |
| 1978 | Richard F. Post | United States | [5] | |
| 1979 | Tihiro Ohkawa | [6] | ||
| 1980 | Thomas H. Stix | United States | [7] | |
| 1981 | John H. Nuckolls | United States | [8] | |
| 1982 | Ira B. Bernstein | United States | [9] | |
| 1983 | Harold P. Furth | Austria/United States | [10] | |
| 1984 | Donald W. Kerst | United States | [11] | |
| 1985 | John H. Malmberg | United States | [12] | |
| 1986 | Harold Grad | United States | [13] | |
| 1987 | Bruno Coppi | Italy | [14] | |
| 1988 | Norman Rostoker | Canada | [15] | |
| 1989 | Ravindra N. Sudan | India | [16] | |
| 1990 | William L. Kruer | United States | [17] | |
| 1991 | Hans R. Griem | United States | [18] | |
| 1992 | John M. Greene | United States | [19] | |
| 1993 | Russell M. Kulsrud | United States | ...for his pioneering contributions to basic plasma theory, to the physics of magnetically confined plasmas and to plasma astrophysics. | [20][21] |
| 1994 | Roy W. Gould | United States | [22] | |
| 1995 | Francis F. Chen | China | "For his rare combination of physical insight, theoretical ability and skill for performing careful, clear and definitive experiments. He has made fundamental contributions to plasma physics in such diverse areas as magnetic confinement devices, laser plasma interactions, novel plasma based accelerators and sources for plasma processing. Of particular note are his pioneering works on: electrostatic probes, low frequency fluctuations in magnetized plasma, parametric instabilities in laser plasma interactions, and helicon plasma sources. In addition, his classic text book Introduction to Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion has helped educate a generation of plasma physicists." | [23] |
| 1996 | Thomas Michael O'Neil | United States | "For seminal contributions to plasma theory, including extension of Landau damping to the nonlinear regime and demonstration of the importance of particle trapping; discovery of the plasma-wave echo; and pioneering studies of the confinement, transport, and thermal equilibria of non-neutral plasmas, liquids and crystals. His theoretical work and active guidance of experiments with trapped, non-neutral plasmas provide much of the foundation for this branch of plasma physics." | [24] |
| 1997 | Charles F. Kennel | United States | "For his fundamental contributions to the basic plasma physics of collisionless shocks, magnetic reconnection and quasilinear theory, and to plasma astrophysics - including the Van Allen radiation belt and the Crab Nebula." | [25] |
| 1998 | Boris B. Kadomtsev | "For fundamental contributions to plasma turbulence theory, stability and nonlinear theory of MHD and kinetic instabilities in plasmas, and for international leadership in research and teaching of plasma physics and controlled thermonuclear fusion physics." | [26][27] | |
| 1999 | John Bryan Taylor | "For ground breaking research, distinguished by its ingenuity and clarity, in such topics as: relaxation theory, transport, finite Larmor radius effects, the minimum-B concept, adiabatic invariance, the standard map, bootstrap currents, the ballooning representation, and confinement scaling laws." | [28] | |
| 2000 | Akira Hasegawa | Japan | "For innovative discoveries and seminal contributions to the theories of nonlinear drift wave turbulence, Alfvin wave propagation in laboratory and space plasmas, and optical solitons and their application to high speed communication." | [29] |
| 2001 | Roald Sagdeev | Russia | "For an unmatched set of contributions to modern plasma theory including: collisionless shocks, stochastic magnetic fields, ion temperature gradient instabilities, quasi-linear theory, neo-classical transport, and weak turbulence theory." | [30] |
| 2002 | Edward A. Frieman | United States | "For contributions to the theory of magnetically confined plasmas, including fundamental work on the formulation of the MHD Energy Principle and on the foundations of linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic theory essential to the analysis of microinstabilities and transport." | [31] |
| 2003 | Eugene N. Parker | United States | "For seminal contributions in plasma astrophysics, including predicting the solar wind, explaining the solar dynamo, formulating the theory of magnetic reconnection, and the instability which predicts the escape of the magnetic fields from the galaxy." | [32] |
| 2004 | Noah Hershkowitz | United States | "For fundamental contributions to the physics of low temperature plasmas, including radio frequency wave heating, sheath physics, potential profiles, diagnostic probes, and the industrial applications of plasmas." | [33] |
| Valery Godyak | Russia | [34] | ||
| 2005 | Nathaniel Fisch | "For theoretical development of efficient rf-driven current in plasmas and for greatly expanding our ability to understand, to analyze, and to utilize wave-plasma interactions." | [35] | |
| 2006 | Chandrashekhar J. Joshi | India | "For his insight and leadership in applying plasma concepts to high energy electron and positron acceleration, and for his creative exploration of related aspects of plasma physics." | [36] |
| 2007 | John Lindl | United States | "For 30 years of continuous plasma physics contributions in high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research and scientific management." | [37] |
| 2008 | Ronald C. Davidson | Canada | "For pioneering contributions to the physics of one-component non-neutral plasmas, intense charge particle beams, and collective nonlinear interaction processes in high-temperature plasmas." | [38] |
| 2009 | Miklos Porkolab | Hungary | "For pioneering investigations of linear and nonlinear plasma waves and wave-particle interactions; fundamental contributions to the development of plasma heating, current drive and diagnostics; and leadership in promoting plasma science education and domestic and international collaborations." | [39] |
| 2010 | James Drake | "For pioneering investigations of plasma instabilities in magnetically-confined, astrophysical and laser-driven plasmas; in particular, explication of the fundamental mechanism of fast reconnection of magnetic fields in plasmas; and leadership in promoting plasma science." | [40] |