Quick Shot

MIT collaborative partners Drs. Rich Petrasso, Chikang Li, and Fredrick Séguin (pictured above) have been named recipients of the 2017 John Dawson Excellence in Plasma Physics Award from the American Physical Society. The award is in recognition of their “pioneering use of proton radiography to reveal aspects of flow, instabilities, and fields in high-energy-density plasmas.” Three other recipients were nominated with the MIT scientists for the award—Dr. Andrew Mackinnon (LLNL), Professor Marco Borghesi (Queen’s University, Belfast), and Professor Oswald Willi (Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf). Much of the pioneering work performed by the MIT scientists was done on the OMEGA 60 laser beginning in the early 2000s. The techniques developed by the winning team are now common at Omega and the National Ignition Facility and science enabled by their pioneering discoveries have been reported in dozens of papers in journals such as Nature, Science, and Physical Review Letters. In acknowledging this award, Professor Dennis Whyte, the Director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT writes, “What strikes me here is that, besides the clearly outstanding science involved, the Award acknowledges the power of a deep and collaborative partnership between a University group and a national-scale laboratory like LLE. It is evident that a well-nurtured partnership is mutually beneficial, and can also expand the impact of the research.” Dr. Michael Campbell, the Director of LLE commented similarly on the close cooperation between MIT and LLE: “This prestigious award recognizes the outstanding research done by the scientists at MIT and their collaborators at LLNL, Queen’s University, and Heinrich Heine University, Dusseldorf. These scientists have been exceptional partners with LLE in research, training, and education for more than two decades. The Laboratory is very pleased to see this recognition by the APS-DPP.”