Prize Recipient

Yogendra Gupta
Washington State University

Citation:

"For many significant contributions to the mechanical, optical, and x-ray measurement of both continuum and microscopic aspects of shock waves in condensed matter."

Background:

Yogendra Gupta completed his B.Sc. (1966) and M.Sc. (1968) degrees at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India. He completed his Ph.D. at Washington State University in 1972. After two years of postdoctoral work at Washington State University and Brown University, he worked for nearly seven years at the Stanford Research Institute (now, SRI International) as a physicist, senior physicist and assistant in the Poulter Laboratory. In September of 1981, he joined the Department of Physics at Washington State University as an Associate Professor, and he has been a Professor of Physics since 1984. He is also the Director of the Institute for Shock Physics. He has been engaged in studies of condensed matter response to shock wave compression, and nonlinear propagation since 1970. His current work is focused on understanding fundamental mechanisms that govern shock wave induced chemical reactions, structural transformations, and inelastic deformation in condensed materials. Fast time-resolved measurements in single event experiments and their analysis are important elements of his research activities. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the New York Academy of Science. In 1994, he received the President's Faculty Excellence Award for Research and Creativity at Washington State University. In 1995, he was the Chairman of APS Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter. He served as the Chairman of the Northwest Section of the APS when it was formed in 1998-99.

Selection Committee:

John Wesley Shaner (Chair), A. Barry Kunz, Lynn M. Barker ('99 Recipient), Richard Gustavsen (Vice Chair), Jerry W. Forbes