honors & Awards Archives

2005

Bonoli and LaBombard Elected to APS Fellowship

Principal Research Scientist Brian LaBombard

Principal Research Scientists Brian LaBombard and Paul Bonoli were honored with election to Fellowship in the American Physical Society this year at the October APS Division of Plasma Physics Meeting in Denver, Colorado. This honor is limited to one half of one percent of the membership, and represents a recognition by their peers of their outstanding contributions to physics.

Principal Research Scientist Paul Bonoli

Paul Bonoli's citation reads, "For seminal contributions to the theory and modeling of wave-particle interactions in the lower hybrid and ion cyclotron range of frequencies in toroidal confinement devices."

Brian Labombard's citation reads, "For fundamental contributions to the understanding of edge plasma transport phenomena in magnetic fusion devices, including poloidal transport asymmetries, plasma flows, and crossfield transport physics in the scrape-off layer."

Graduate Students Bhatt and Samokhvalova Honored

At the Particle Accelerator Conference held in Knoxville, Tennesee, May 16-20, 2005, Ronak Bhatt and Ksenia Samokhvalova, both graduate students working with Dr. Chiping Chen, were honored for their work.

For his joint paper "Three-Dimensional Theory and Simulation of Large-Aspect-Ratio Ellipse-Shaped Charged-Particle Beam Gun" with Tom Bemis and Chiping Chen, Mr. Bhatt received First-Place Award for an Outstanding Technical Paper by a Student. For her joint paper "Analytical and Numerical Calculations of Two-Dimensional Dielectric Photonic Band Gap Structures and Cavities for Laser Acceleration" with Chiping Chen and Bao-Liang Qian, Miss Samokhvalova received Honorable Mention Award for an Outstanding Technical Paper by a Student.

Terry and Wukitch Receive Infinite Mile Award

Steve Wukitch( L) and David Terry (R) receoved the Infinite Mile award.

PSFC 2005 Infinite Mile Award recipients, David Terry and Stephen Wukitch, received recognition at a Faculty Club luncheon on May 11. Hosted by Vice President for Research and Associate Provost Alice Gast, the event honored 18 exceptional people who work at MIT.

The luncheon program quotes from letters written on behalf of the recipients, making clear why they were chosen. Chief PSFC Electrical Engineer David Terry is described as follows: 

"During his years on the Alcator Project he has always worked with extreme diligence to complete what have been very difficult missions…. He has always led by example, not only working very hard, but also producing only the highest quality instrumentation. / Through his hard work and because of his high standards David has consistently had a large impact on the Alcator mission / He showed an amazing ability to do the hard work and organize all the details while working very effectively with his co-workers. / He presses those under him towards excellence, but never requires more sacrifice from them than from himself… It is this kind of drive towards excellence, in my view, that has made C-Mod a world-class experiment, and MIT a world-class institution."

Research Scientist Stephen Wukitch also received praise:

"Steve has shown remarkable leadership and incredible organizational skills, all while fostering the highest level of morale in the RF physics and engineering group / Steven has also contributed very strongly in the areas of fostering and enabling collaborative work with RF theorists and computer modelers at several institutions, including MIT, the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab and internationally with the University of Torino in Italy and IPP Garching in Germany. / Steve also contributes significantly to the guidance of graduate students. / On top of all of his other contributions, Steve has willingly volunteered to coordinate all meeting presentations for the entire Alcator Group. / Steven has worked tirelessly for group objectives, while contributing at the highest level to scientific research in the C-Mod group."

A celebratory Toscanini's ice cream social is being planned for this summer to further congratulate Steve and Dave.

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