This is a list of physicists who have worked in or made notable contributions to the field of plasma physics.
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! Name !! Known for !! Recognition
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|development and characterization of x-ray sources from laser-wakefield accelerators
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|magneto-hydrodynamics
|Nobel Prize (1970)
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|Alfvén Prize (2000)
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|numerical contributions to the fundamental physics of magnetically confined plasmas
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|simulations of transport and turbulence in strongly rotating plasmas
|APS Fellow (2024)
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|Z-pinch is a form of "Bennett pinch". Also invented radio frequency mass spectrometry.
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|fundamental theoretical contributions plasma physics including a wave mode in his name
|Maxwell Prize (1982)
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|First suggested that polar electric currents (or auroral electrojets) are connected to a system of filaments (now called "Birkeland currents") that flow along geomagnetic field lines into and away from the polar region.
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|derived the Bohm sheath criterion, which states that a plasma must flow with at least the speed of sound toward a solid surface
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|COMPASS CASTOR tokamak, GOLEM tokamak
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|computational plasma physics and plasma simulation, Farley–Buneman instability
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|established the links between sheared plasma flow and turbulent transport
|Maxwell Prize (2018)
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|created the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) concept, an electromagnetic thruster for spacecraft propulsion
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|relativistic laser-matter interactions using femtosecond PW lasers
|APS Fellow (2008)
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|developed kinetic theory of gases and applied it to study the magnetosphere
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|electrostatic probes, textbook
|Maxwell Prize (1995)
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|design of high field tokamaks
|Maxwell Prize (1987)
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|astrophysical and turbulent plasmas
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|vacuum tubes and the Crookes tube
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|one-component non-neutral plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2008)
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|introduced the use of computer simulation to plasma physics
|Maxwell Prize (1977)
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|Debye shielding and Debye length
|Nobel Prize (1936)
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|theory of the fundamental mechanism of fast reconnection of magnetic fields in plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2010)
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|co-led the Spheromak project
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|magnetic fusion energy research
|APS Fellow (1975)
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|invention of the cathode-ray tube, television and Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor
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|theoretical development of efficient rf-driven current in plasmas
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|theory of magnetically confined plasmas, including fundamental work on the formulation of the MHD Energy Principle
|Maxwell Prize (2002)
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|resistive instabilities
|Maxwell Prize (1983)
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|theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in plasmas
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|fundamental contributions to the physics of low temperature plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2004)
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|empirical scaling relationship for the confinement of energy in tokamak plasmas
|APS Fellow (1987)
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|responsible for building Princeton Large Torus and Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at PPPL
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|beam-plasma interactions
|Maxwell Prize (1994)
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|theoretical contributions to magnetohydrodynamics
|Maxwell Prize (1986)
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|contributions to theory of magnetohydrodynamic equilibria and ideal and resistive instabilities
|Maxwell Prize (1992)
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|contributions to plasma spectroscopy and spectral line broadening in plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (1991)
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|theories of nonlinear drift wave turbulence, including the Hasegawa-Mima equation
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|fundamental contributions to the physics of low temperature plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2004)
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|hohlraum design for inertial confinement fusion
|APS Fellow (2025)
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|nuclear processes in low-temperature plasmas
|Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
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|interaction of solar plasma with the Earth's magnetosphere and radiation belts
|Weimer Award (2023)
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|HT-7 tokomak
|Chinese Academy of Engineering
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|inertial fusion science stellar nucleosynthesis
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|application of plasma concepts to high energy electron and positron acceleration
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|early plasma turbulence theory, stability and nonlinear theory of MHD and kinetic instabilities
|Maxwell Prize (1998)
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|founding director of Institute for Plasma Research
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|fundamental contributions to the basic plasma physics of collisionless shocks
|Maxwell Prize (1997)
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|invention of the levitated toroidal multipole
|Maxwell Prize (1984)
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|laser isotope separation, Chief Science Officer of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (1969-2005)
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|studies of Alfven waves and aurorae
|APS Fellow (2022)
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|hohlraum design, first laboratory burning and igniting fusion plasma
|APS Fellow (2022)
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|theoretical and experimental understanding of intense electromagnetic waves with plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (1990)
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|plasma theory including magnetic reconnection
|Maxwell Prize (1993)
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|Landau damping
|Nobel Prize (1962)
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|coined the term "plasma" to hint at the lifelike behavior of this state of matter. Developed electron temperature concepts and an electrostatic probe, the Langmuir probe.
|Nobel Prize (1932)
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|Plasma pencil, biomedical applications of low temperature plasma, plasma medicine
|APS Fellow (2023)
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|focus fusion and plasma cosmology
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|contributions in high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research
|Maxwell Prize (2007)
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|computational research in nonlinear physics in the boundary layers of space plasmas
|Weimer Award (2002)
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|experimental demonstration of Landau damping and development of pure electron plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (1985)
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|nonlinear dynamics of dusty plasma physics
|Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award (2009)
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|turbulence in space and astrophysical plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2019)
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|particle transport in tokamaks
|APS Fellow (2025)
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|plasma crystals as a solid state of aggregation of dusty plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2011)
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|theory and kinetic simulations of nonlinear processes in plasma-based acceleration
|Maxwell Prize (2020)
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|electric field measurements in space plasma
|APS Fellow (1977)
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|theory of ionized plasmas
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|introduced the inertial confinement approach to fusion
|Maxwell Prize (1981)
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|plasma theory, including extension of Landau damping to the nonlinear regime
|Maxwell Prize (1996)
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|developed the doublet approach for toroidal confinement fusion
|Maxwell Prize (1979)
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|plasma astrophysics, including predicting the solar wind, explaining the solar dynamo, and formulating the theory of magnetic reconnection
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|Paschen's law, an equation relating the breakdown voltage to the gas pressure and electrode gap length
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|influential advocate of plasma cosmology
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|inertial confinement fusion, Raman amplification of lasers in plasma
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| Maxim G. Ponomarev [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maxim-Ponomarev ]|| pioneering investigations of disturbances of all plasma species by modeling charged particle emissions from imaginary and additional sources:. Imaginary-emission method for modeling disturbances of all magnetoplasma species: Reflecting and absorbing objects in motion through a rarefied plasma at different angles to the ambient magnetic field (Phys. Rev. E 54, 5591 – Published 1 November 1996) [https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.54.5591 ]
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|linear and nonlinear plasma waves and wave-particle interactions
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|developed the magnetic mirror concept for magnetic confinement fusion
|Maxwell Prize (1978)
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|energy transfer in magneto-fluid turbulence
|Alfvén Prize (2020)
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|stable plasmas in tokamaks, experimental measurement of plasma energy
|Alfvén Prize (2017)
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|laser-plasma interactions
|APS Fellow (2023)
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|fundamental theoretical contributions plasma physics, and in particular, plasma instabilities
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|statistical mechanics of particles with Coulomb interactions
|Maxwell Prize (1988)
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|Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle and serpentine geometry plasma actuator
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|theory of low and high energy density plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2017)
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|theory of collisionless shocks and stochastic magnetic fields
|Maxwell Prize (2001)
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|Saha ionization equation
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|proposed development of tokamaks
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|electric discharges in gases and plasma physics
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|Grad–Shafranov equation, Kruskal–Shafranov instability)
|Alfvén Prize (2001)
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|Spitzer resistivity, Project Matterhorn
|Maxwell Prize (1975)
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|high intensity laser interactions with plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2013)
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|doublet approach for toroidal confinement fusion
|Maxwell Prize (1980)
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|generation and propagation of intense ion beams
|Maxwell Prize (1989)
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|developer of numerical simulations for plasma physics
|APS Fellow (2004)
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|invention of and development of techniques to accumulate, confine, and utilize positron plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2014)
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|helicity conservation, bootstrap current, ballooning transformation, plasma theory
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|dynamics of charged particles and plasma in the Van Allen radiation belt
|Weimer Award (2021)
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|Vlasov equation models plasma with long-range interaction between particles
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|discovery of H-mode in ASDEX in 1984
|Alfvén Prize (2007)
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|plasma magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium and stability theory
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|turbulent transport in tokamaks
|Weimer Award (2014)
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|experimental studies of magnetic reconnection relevant to space, astrophysical and fusion plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2015)
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|laser-plasma interactions
|Weimer Award (2008)
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|energetics, stability, and dynamics of astrophysical plasmas
|Maxwell Prize (2016)
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