Simon Hooker
Oxford University
Citation:
"For experiments and theory leading to the demonstration of high-quality electron beams from laser-plasma accelerators."
Background:
Simon
Hooker was awarded undergraduate and D.Phil degrees in
Physics by the University
of Oxford in 1986 and
1990 respectively. Following post-doctoral work with Colin Webb at Oxford, and Steve Harris
at Stanford University,
he returned to the UK
in 1996 to take up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. He joined
the faculty at Oxford
in 2005 and was made Professor of Atomic and Laser Physics in 2008. He is a Fellow
of Merton College, Oxford
where he directs undergraduate teaching in Physics.
The general area of Simon Hooker's
research is the investigation of applications arising from the interaction of
high-intensity laser pulses with matter. He and his group have worked on development
of bright sources of coherent short-wavelength radiation, such as optical field
ionization lasers and quasi-phase-matched high-harmonic generation; the development
and application of techniques for guiding high-intensity laser pulses, in
particular plasma channels formed by capillary discharges; and laser-driven
plasma accelerators and their application to radiation generation. He has also
co-authored a textbook on Laser Physics, published by Oxford University Press.
Simon
Hooker is
a member of the Institute
of Physics and of the
Optical Society of America.
Selection Committee:
Amitava Bhattacharjee, Chair; Richard Berger; Yitzhak Maron; Michael Mauel; Cliff Surko