Name Known for Recognition Félicie Albert development and characterization of x-ray sources from laser-wakefield accelerators Weimer Award (2017) Hannes Alfvén magneto-hydrodynamics Nobel Prize (1970) Radu Bălescu Alfvén Prize (2000) Elena Belova numerical contributions to the fundamental physics of magnetically confined plasmas Weimer Award (2005) Emily Belli simulations of transport and turbulence in strongly rotating plasmas APS Fellow (2024) Willard Harrison Bennett Z-pinch is a form of "Bennett pinch ". Also invented radio frequency mass spectrometry . Ira B. Bernstein fundamental theoretical contributions plasma physics including a wave mode in his name Maxwell Prize (1982) Kristian Birkeland 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. David Bohm derived the Bohm sheath criterion , which states that a plasma must flow with at least the speed of sound toward a solid surface Fran Bošnjaković Jana Brotánková COMPASS CASTOR tokamak, GOLEM tokamak Oscar Buneman computational plasma physics and plasma simulation, Farley–Buneman instability Keith H. Burrell established the links between sheared plasma flow and turbulent transport Maxwell Prize (2018) Franklin Chang-Diaz created the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) concept, an electromagnetic thruster for spacecraft propulsion Nam Chang-hee Sydney Chapman development of the kinetic theory of gases Francis F. Chen electrostatic probes, textbook Maxwell Prize (1995) Liu Chen Bruno Coppi design of high field tokamaks Maxwell Prize (1987) Sir Steven Cowley astrophysical and turbulent plasmas William Crookes vacuum tubes and the Crookes tube Ronald C. Davidson one-component non-neutral plasmas Maxwell Prize (2008) John M. Dawson introduced the use of computer simulation to plasma physics Maxwell Prize (1977) Peter Debye Debye shielding and Debye length Nobel Prize (1936) James F. Drake theory of the fundamental mechanism of fast reconnection of magnetic fields in plasmas Maxwell Prize (2010) Robert Ellis Head of experimental projects at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory ; co-led the Spheromak project Harold P. Eubank Philo Farnsworth invention of the cathode-ray tube , television and Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor Nathaniel Fisch theoretical development of efficient rf-driven current in plasmas Maxwell Prize (2005) Edward A. Frieman theory of magnetically confined plasmas, including fundamental work on the formulation of the MHD Energy Principle Maxwell Prize (2002) Harold Fürth resistive instabilities Maxwell Prize (1983) Vitaly Ginzburg theory of electromagnetic wave propagation in plasmas Valery Godyak fundamental contributions to the physics of low temperature plasmas Maxwell Prize (2004) Robert J. Goldston empirical scaling relationship for the confinement of energy in tokamak plasmas Melvin Gottlieb responsible for building Princeton Large Torus and Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at PPPL Roy W. Gould beam-plasma interactions Maxwell Prize (1994) Harold Grad theoretical contributions to magnetohydrodynamics Maxwell Prize (1986) John M. Greene contributions to theory of magnetohydrodynamic equilibria and ideal and resistive instabilities Maxwell Prize (1992) Hans R. Griem contributions to plasma spectroscopy and spectral line broadening in plasmas Maxwell Prize (1991) Akira Hasegawa theories of nonlinear drift wave turbulence, including the Hasegawa-Mima equation Maxwell Prize (2000) Noah Hershkowitz fundamental contributions to the physics of low temperature plasmas Maxwell Prize (2004) Laura Berzak Hopkins hohlraum design for inertial confinement fusion APS Fellow (2025) Ratko Janev nuclear processes in low-temperature plasmas Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts Li Jiangang HT-7 tokomak Chinese Academy of Engineering Maria Gatu Johnson inertial fusion science stellar nucleosynthesis Chandrashekhar J. Joshi application of plasma concepts to high energy electron and positron acceleration Maxwell Prize (2006) Boris B. Kadomtsev early plasma turbulence theory, stability and nonlinear theory of MHD and kinetic instabilities Maxwell Prize (1998) Predhiman Krishan Kaw founding director of Institute for Plasma Research Charles F. Kennel fundamental contributions to the basic plasma physics of collisionless shocks Maxwell Prize (1997) Donald W. Kerst invention of the levitated toroidal multipole Maxwell Prize (1984) Shaukat Hameed Khan laser isotope separation , Chief Science Officer of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (1969-2005) Craig Kletzing studies of Alfven waves and aurorae APS Fellow (2022) Andrea Kritcher hohlraum design, first laboratory burning and igniting fusion plasma APS Fellow (2022) William L. Kruer theoretical and experimental understanding of intense electromagnetic waves with plasmas Maxwell Prize (1990) Russell M. Kulsrud plasma theory including magnetic reconnection Maxwell Prize (1993) Lev Landau Landau damping Nobel Prize (1962) Irving Langmuir 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) Mounir Laroussi Plasma pencil , biomedical applications of low temperature plasma, plasma medicine APS Fellow (2023) Eric Lerner focus fusion and plasma cosmology John Lindl contributions in high energy density physics and inertial confinement fusion research Maxwell Prize (2007) Yu Lin computational research in nonlinear physics in the boundary layers of space plasmas Weimer Award (2002) John H. Malmberg experimental demonstration of Landau damping and development of pure electron plasmas Maxwell Prize (1985) A A Mamun nonlinear dynamics of dusty plasma physics Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award (2009) William H. Matthaeus turbulence in space and astrophysical plasmas Maxwell Prize (2019) Saskia Mordijck particle transport in tokamaks APS Fellow (2025) Gregor Eugen Morfill plasma crystals as a solid state of aggregation of dusty plasmas Maxwell Prize (2011) Warren Bicknell Mori theory and kinetic simulations of nonlinear processes in plasma-based acceleration Maxwell Prize (2020) Forrest S. Mozer electric field measurements in space plasma Ghulam Murtaza John Nuckolls introduced the inertial confinement approach to fusion Maxwell Prize (1981) Thomas M. O'Neil plasma theory, including extension of Landau damping to the nonlinear regime Maxwell Prize (1996) Tihiro Ohkawa developed the doublet approach for toroidal confinement fusion Maxwell Prize (1979) Eugene N. Parker plasma astrophysics, including predicting the solar wind, explaining the solar dynamo, and formulating the theory of magnetic reconnection Maxwell Prize (2003) Friedrich Paschen Paschen's law , an equation relating the breakdown voltage to the gas pressure and electrode gap length Anthony Peratt influential advocate of plasma cosmology Miklos Porkolab linear and nonlinear plasma waves and wave-particle interactions Maxwell Prize (2009) Richard F. Post developed the magnetic mirror concept for magnetic confinement fusion Maxwell Prize (1978) Ksenia Aleksandrovna Razumova stable plasmas in tokamaks, experimental measurement of plasma energy Alfvén Prize (2017) Caterina Riconda laser-plasma interactions APS Fellow (2023) Marshall Rosenbluth fundamental theoretical contributions plasma physics, and in particular, plasma instabilities Maxwell Prize (1976) Norman Rostoker statistical mechanics of particles with Coulomb interactions Maxwell Prize (1988) Subrata Roy Wingless Electromagnetic Air Vehicle and serpentine geometry plasma actuator Dmitri Ryutov theory of low and high energy density plasmas Maxwell Prize (2017) Roald Sagdeev theory of collisionless shocks and stochastic magnetic fields Maxwell Prize (2001) Meghnad Saha Saha ionization equation Andrey Dmitriyevich Sakharov proposed development of tokamaks Rudolf Seeliger electric discharges in gases and plasma physics Vitaly Shafranov Grad–Shafranov equation , Kruskal–Shafranov instability ) Lyman Spitzer Spitzer resistivity , Project Matterhorn Maxwell Prize (1975) Phillip A. Sprangle high intensity laser interactions with plasmas Maxwell Prize (2013) Thomas H. Stix doublet approach for toroidal confinement fusion Maxwell Prize (1980) Ravindra Sudan generation and propagation of intense ion beams Maxwell Prize (1989) Linda Sugiyama developer of numerical simulations for plasma physics APS Fellow (2004) Clifford Surko invention of and development of techniques to accumulate, confine, and utilize positron plasmas Maxwell Prize (2014) John Bryan Taylor helicity conservation, bootstrap current, ballooning transformation, plasma theory Maxwell Prize (1999) Anatoly Vlasov Vlasov equation models plasma with long-range interaction between particles Friedrich Wagner discovery of H-mode in ASDEX in 1984 Katherine Weimer plasma magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium and stability theory Anne E. White turbulent transport in tokamaks Weimer Award (2014) Masaaki Yamada experimental studies of magnetic reconnection relevant to space, astrophysical and fusion plasmas Maxwell Prize (2015) Lin Yin laser-plasma interactions Weimer Award (2008) Ellen G. Zweibel energetics, stability, and dynamics of astrophysical plasmas Maxwell Prize (2016) 