Honors & awards archive

2010

PSFC Students Become DOE Office of Science Fellows

PSFC graduate students Elizabeth Kowalski and Christian Haakonsen have been selected to receive 2010 U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science fellowships. Kowalski is an Electrical Engineering and Computer Science student in the Waves and Beams Division; Haakonsen is a Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) student working with the Alcator Project. Incoming NSE student Mark Chilenski, who will be working on the Levitated

PSFC graduate students Christian Haakonsen and Elizabeth Kowalski

Dipole Experiment, also received an award.

They were among 150 students selected by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu to receive awards as part of a new Department of Energy Graduate Fellowship program.  Each graduate fellow will be provided with tuition, living expenses, and research support for three years. The new fellowship program is designed to strengthen the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to young students during the formative years of their research.

“The exceptionally talented students selected as graduate fellows are part of our nation’s next generation of scientific and technical leaders,” said Secretary Chu.  “This investment in the training of scientists and engineers is part of the Administration’s continued effort to ensure that America has the scientific and engineering workforce we need to secure our energy future and our continued economic competitiveness.”

The goal of the fellowship program is to encourage students to pursue graduate degrees in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, engineering, and environmental and computer sciences—fields that will prepare students for careers that can make significant contributions in discovery-driven science and science for national needs in energy and the environment.

For a complete list of awardees visit the Office of Science Graduate Fellowship.

Three from PSFC Honored with Infinite Mile Awards

Three PSFC staff members were among the nineteen MIT employees honored with the Infinite Mile Award, 2010:

Robert Granetz, Principal Scientist and Group Leader on the Alcator C-Mod Project.

Robert Granetz, Brian La Bombard and Richard Murray. The Infinite Mile Awards Program forthe Offices of the Provost and the Vice President for Research and Associate Provost is designed to recognize those individuals or teams who have made extraordinary contributions within their own organizations to help the Institute carry out its mission: to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century. Selections from the nomination letters for these individuals appear below.

Robert Granetz: Bob is a Principal Research Scientist and group leader on the Alcator C-Mod Project. He has spent countless hours working with graduate students, scientists, and engineers to make sure that the many diagnostics systems required are installed and working properly. This requires many hours of work inside the confined vacuum vessel spaces on weekends and evenings. And Bob has always accepted these challenges without hesitation, and maintains his enthusiastic and contagious optimism along with a serious can-do attitude. Bob’s optimistic and enthusiastic approach, and his great efforts in solving the many complex problems found in our area of research are key to the success of the project.

Brian Labombard: Brian serves as Principal Research Scientist and has worked

Brian Labombard, Principal Research Scientist, working on the Alcator C-Mod Project.

tirelessly and made extraordinary contributions to ensure the success of the high-visible milestone for this country’s three major fusion-research projects, and the MIT’s Alcator C-Mod project is one of these. The milestone was developed by the funding agency the Department of Energy, and is extremely important to fulfill. Brian has been an unparalleled contributor to the success of what happens at the C-Mod experiment – both basic hardware and engineering and also supporting the research of others. He challenges scientists and students to live up to his high scientific and moral standards, by setting a good example. Brian regularly provides innovative suggestions and advice to others, thus substantially enhancing the scientific quality of their work. It would be next to impossible to find someone who has not benefited immensely from his contributions.

Rick Murray

Richard Murray: Rick is the Radio Frequency Instrumentation Engineer and has primary responsibility for the proper operation, maintenance and upgrade to instrumentation and control systems for four 2 Megawatt 80 Megahertz Ion Cyclotron Resonant Heating systems used on Alcator C-Mod to heat the plasma. Rick also is heavily involved in building, maintaining, upgrading and operating a Two-Color Interferometry system used for electron density measurements on Alcator C-Mod plasmas. Rick is particularly good at communicating complex technical ideas and information to others, including the many graduate students he has worked with, and spends many hours thoroughly documenting the systems and equipment he designs and builds. He is a team player with a persistent positive attitude and outlook.

Darren Garnier honored by Fusion Power Associates

Dr. Darren Garnier, a Visiting Scientist from Columbia University working at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center

(PSFC), received a 2009 Fusion Power Associates (FPA) Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award.

Dr. Darren Garnier receiving Fusion Power Associates excelence in Fusion Engineering Award.

In selecting Dr. Garnier, the FPA Board notes the contributions and leadership he has provided for the design, fabrication and operation of the Levitated Dipole Experiment (a joint Columbia-MIT project located at the PSFC) and his contributions to the diagnostics and control systems for that experiment.

FPA Excellence in Fusion Engineering Awards, established in memory of MIT professor David J. Rose, have been given annually since 1987 to recognize individuals in the relatively early part of their careers who have shown both technical accomplishment and potential to become exceptionally influential leaders in the fusion field.

The award was presented at Fusion Power Associates Thirty-year Anniversary Annual Meeting and Symposium, December 2-3, in Washington, DC