Congratulations to the following IFS scientists, whose papers were selected for poster presentation at the 2008 Fusion Energy Conference sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (Geneva, October 13-18):
In addition, Francois Waelbroeck was honored to be invited to give a theory overview talk, which will be on "Theory and observations of magnetic islands."
The Modern Marvels Program on the History Channel has created a show called "Super Hot." It will include a segment on plasmas and fusion, because we have made the super hot in fusion research.
It will be broadcast on Monday, June 9, at the following times:
8:00 pm Eastern and Pacific Times
7:00 pm Central
6:00 pm Mountain
For further information and perhaps more accurate local airing times, go to http://www.history.com or your local TV listings.
Two IFS students were recently honored with prestigious graduate fellowships:
Chris Fietz was awarded a University Continuing Fellowship for academic year 2008-2009 from the Office of Graduate Studies of The University of Texas at Austin.
Carl Siemon was awarded a three-year National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship from the US Department of Defense.
Congratulations to both Chris and Carl, and to their thesis supervisor, Gennady Shvets.
Congratulations to Jesse Pino and Jason TenBarge, each of whom was selected to receive one of the six awards for best student presentations at the recent 2008 Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference in Boulder, CO.
In competition with students from many other universities, these are noteworthy honors.
Dr. François L. Waelbroeck, our associate director, has been elected to be a Fellow of the American Physical Society. The citation to appear on his Fellowship Certificate will read: "For his work on the effect of velocity shear on ballooning modes, on the formation of current ribbons, and on the effect of the polarization current in magnetic islands." This certificate will be presented to him at the Annual Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics (November 12-16, 2007, Orlando, FL).
Congratulations to François on this well-deserved honor.
Herb Berk has been elected as a 2007 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
His citation is: "For contributions to plasma physics and kinetic theory."
Sincere congratulations to Herb on this notable honor! His photo is in the October 26, 2007 Austin American Statesman, Metro Section.
This year, the program committee of the Sherwood International Fusion Theory Conference (held earlier this week in Annapolis, MD) initiated a new award for outstanding poster presentations by graduate students. Six of these awards were given, each with an accompanying honorarium.
Two of the six awards were received by IFS graduate students:
* Jason TenBarge, "Thermodynamics of an anisotropic relativistic plasma"
* Mikhail Tushentsov, "Modeling of plasma detachment in a magnetic nozzle"
Congratulations to Jason and Mikhail!
On Jan. 11, 2007, Thomas J. Vanek, Acting Associate Director for Fusion Energy Sciences in the DOE Office of Science, announced to community leaders that OFES has named Dr. James W. Van Dam (University of Texas) as the next Director of U.S. Burning Plasma Organization.
Congratulations to Dr. Van Dam!