Prize Recipient

Raymond John Fonck
University of Wisconsin, Madison

"For his implementation, development, and exploitation of Beam Emission Spectroscopy for measuring fluctuations and their relations to anomalous transport in hot, fusion-relevant plasmas."

Raymond Fonck received his BA with Honors in physics in 1973 and Ph.D. in physics in 1978, both from the University of Wisconsin. His thesis research used excited-state laser spectroscopy to study the diamagnetic Zeeman effect.

He was at the Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory from 1978 thru 1989. On the PDX tokamak experiment, he pursued measurements of impurity and particle transport in tokamak plasmas, and was instrumental in developing charge exchange recombination spectroscopy for measurements of ion temperature and fusion products in confined plasmas. He was Deputy Head of the PBX-M tokamak project studying high beta plasma equilibria and a member of the TFTR experimental team, where he studied ion thermal transport in tokamak plasmas.

He joined the Department of Engineering Physics at Wisconsin as a Professor in 1989, and developed the Beam Emission Spectroscopy technique for studies of long-wavelength plasma turbulence in the TFTR experiment. He also led the development of the alpha-CHERS diagnostic to provide some of the first measurements of alpha-particle reaction products in a confined fusing plasma. He presently is head of the Pegasus Toroidal Experiment to study high beta plasmas in very low-aspect ratio toroidal geometries, and participates in collaborative experiments on plasma turbulence in the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. Current efforts in high-temperature plasma diagnostic development include X-ray camera development to determine internal magnetic structures, and development of advanced analysis and 2-D imaging techniques for plasma turbulence studies.

He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a member of the AAAS, the IEEE and the ASEE. He presently serves as President of the University Fusion Association (1999-2000).

Charles F Karney (Chair), David A Hammer, Robert Cauble ('98 Recipient), Earl Marmar (Vice Chair), John Soures