The James Clerk Maxwell Prize in Plasma Physics is an annual American Physical Society

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...

 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

Scottish people

The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...

 physicist

Physicist

A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

 James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell

James Clerk Maxwell of Glenlair was a Scottish physicist and mathematician. His most prominent achievement was formulating classical electromagnetic theory. This united all previously unrelated observations, experiments and equations of electricity, magnetism and optics into a consistent theory...

. It is currently sponsored by General Atomics

General Atomics

General Atomics is a nuclear physics and defense contractor headquartered in San Diego, California. General Atomics’ research into fission and fusion matured into competencies in related technologies, allowing the company to expand into other fields of research...

. The prize includes of a $10,000 USD monetary award and recognition at the annual American Physical Society

American Physical Society

The American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...

 Division of Plasma Physics conference.

Recipients

Year	Recipient	Country	Rationale	Reference
1975	Lyman Spitzer Lyman Spitzer Lyman Strong Spitzer, Jr. was an American theoretical physicist and astronomer best known for his research in star formation, plasma physics, and in 1946, for conceiving the idea of telescopes operating in outer space...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	For his pioneering investigations of the behavior of plasma Plasma (physics) In physics and chemistry, plasma is a state of matter similar to gas in which a certain portion of the particles are ionized. Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms , thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions...  and guiding and inspiring a generation of plasma physicists through his research and leadership in the controlled thermonuclear program.
1976	Marshall Nicholas Rosenbluth Marshall Rosenbluth Marshall Nicholas Rosenbluth was an American plasma physicist and member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1997 he was awarded the National Medal of Science for discoveries in controlled thermonuclear fusion, contributions to plasma physics and work in computational statistical mechanics. ...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1977	John M. Dawson John M. Dawson John M. Dawson was an American computational physicist. He received the Aneesur Rahman prize in computational physics. The Rahman prize is the highest honor given by the American Physical Society for work in computational physics. He is credited as the inventor of the field of Plasma acceleration...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1978	Richard F. Post Richard F. Post Dr. Richard F. Post is an American physicist who has done work in nuclear fusion, magnetic levitation and magnetic bearing design and plasma physics, and winner of the James Clerk Maxwell Prize in Plasma Physics and who holds patents in the fields of nuclear fusion, particle accelerators, and...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1979	Tihiro Ohkawa
1980	Thomas H. Stix Thomas H. Stix Thomas Howard Stix was an American physicist. Stix performed seminal work in plasma physics, and wrote the first mathematical treatment of the field in 1962's The Theory of Plasma Waves....	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1981	John H. Nuckolls	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1982	Ira B. Bernstein	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1983	Harold P. Furth Harold Furth Harold P. Furth was an Austrian-American physicist.Furth emigrated to the United States in 1941. He graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor's degree in 1951 and received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1960...	Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... /United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1984	Donald W. Kerst Donald William Kerst Donald William Kerst was an American physicist.He was born in Galena, Illinois. At the University of Wisconsin he earned a bachelor's degree in 1934, then was awarded a Ph.D. in 1937. For a year he worked at General Electric Company, then he taught at the University of Illinois from 1938 until...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1985	John H. Malmberg	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1986	Harold Grad	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1987	Bruno Coppi	Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
1988	Norman Rostoker	Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
1989	Ravindra N. Sudan	India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
1990	William L. Kruer	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1991	Hans R. Griem	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1992	John M. Greene	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1993	Russell M. Kulsrud	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	...for his pioneering contributions to basic plasma theory, to the physics of magnetically confined plasmas and to plasma astrophysics.
1994	Roy W. Gould	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
1995	Francis F. Chen Francis F. Chen Francis F. Chen is a Chinese-born American plasma physicist.-Biography:Chen studied at Harvard University, where he received his bachelor's degree in astronomy in 1950, a Masters degree in physics in 1953, and his doctorate in 1954...	China China Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...	"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."
1996	Thomas Michael O'Neil	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	"For seminal contributions to plasma theory, including extension of Landau damping Landau damping In physics, Landau damping, named after its discoverer, the eminent Soviet physicist Lev Davidovich Landau, is the effect of damping of longitudinal space charge waves in plasma or a similar environment. This phenomenon prevents an instability from developing, and creates a region of stability in...  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."
1997	Charles F. Kennel	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	"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 Van Allen radiation belt The Van Allen radiation belt is a torus of energetic charged particles around Earth, which is held in place by Earth's magnetic field. It is believed that most of the particles that form the belts come from solar wind, and other particles by cosmic rays. It is named after its discoverer, James...  and the Crab Nebula Crab Nebula The Crab Nebula  is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus... ."
1998	Boris B. Kadomtsev		"For fundamental contributions to plasma turbulence theory, stability and nonlinear theory of MHD Magnetohydrodynamics Magnetohydrodynamics is an academic discipline which studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids. Examples of such fluids include plasmas, liquid metals, and salt water or electrolytes...  and kinetic instabilities in plasmas, and for international leadership in research and teaching of plasma physics and controlled thermonuclear fusion physics."
1999	John Bryan Taylor John Bryan Taylor John Bryan Taylor is a British physicist known for his important contributions to plasma physics and their application in the field of fusion energy. Notable among these is the development of the "Taylor state", describing a minimum-energy configuration that conserves magnetic helicity...		"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."
2000	Akira Hasegawa	Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...	"For innovative discoveries and seminal contributions to the theories of nonlinear drift wave turbulence, Alfvin wave Alfvén wave An Alfvén wave, named after Hannes Alfvén, is a type of magnetohydrodynamic wave.-Definition:An Alfvén wave in a plasma is a low-frequency travelling oscillation of the ions and the magnetic field...  propagation in laboratory and space plasmas, and optical soliton Soliton In mathematics and physics, a soliton is a self-reinforcing solitary wave that maintains its shape while it travels at constant speed. Solitons are caused by a cancellation of nonlinear and dispersive effects in the medium... s and their application to high speed communication."
2001	Roald Sagdeev Roald Sagdeev Roald Zinnurovich Sagdeev is a Soviet and Russian expert in plasma physics and former director of the Space Research Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. He was also a science advisor to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Sagdeev graduated from Moscow State University. He is a member of the...	Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...	"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."
2002	Edward A. Frieman	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	"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 Gyrokinetics Gyrokinetics is a branch of plasma physics derived from kinetics and electromagnetism used to describe the low-frequency phenomena in a plasma. The trajectory of charged particles in a magnetic field is a helix that winds around the field line...  essential to the analysis of microinstabilities and transport."
2003	Eugene N. Parker Eugene Parker Eugene N. Parker is an American solar astrophysicist who received his B.S. degree in physics from Michigan State University in 1948 and Ph.D. from Caltech in 1951. In the mid 1950s Parker developed the theory on the supersonic solar wind and predicted the Parker spiral shape of the solar magnetic...	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	"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."
2004	Noah Hershkowitz	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	"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."
	Valery Godyak	Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
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."
2006	Chandrashekhar J. Joshi	India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...	"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."
2007	John Lindl	United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...	"For 30 years of continuous plasma physics contributions in high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research and scientific management."
2008	Ronald C. Davidson Ronald C. Davidson Ronald C. Davidson is a Canadian physicist, professor and scientific administrator who works in the United States. He served as the first director of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center from 1978 to 1988, and as director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory from 1991 to 1996...	Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	"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."
2009	Miklos Porkolab	Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...	"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."
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."

External links

• Official Website