Photo: Elle Starkman, PPPL

From left are PPPL Director Stewart Prager, PPPL Deputy Director for Operations Adam Cohen, PPPL Distinguished Engineering Fellow Lane Roquemore, Kaul Prize recipients Robert Kaita, Leonid Zakharov, and Dick Majeski, and PPPL Deputy Director for Research Michael Zarnstorff.

During a January 14 reception at the Laboratory, PPPL honored four fusion energy researchers — Robert Kaita, Dick Majeski, Lane Roquemore, and Leonid Zakharov — for their scientific accomplishments. Physicists Kaita, Majeski, and Zakharov received the Kaul Prize for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research and Technology Development. Roquemore, an engineer, received the PPPL Distinguished Engineering Fellow award.

The Laboratory cited the Kaul Prize recipients for their pioneering work in the use of liquid lithium metal as a renewable wall for fusion devices and the Engineering Fellow for his many contributions to the development of fusion science, with particular emphasis on new frontier diagnostic development.

Kaul Prize Recipients
Kaita, Majeski, and Zakharov are Co-Principal Investigators on PPPL's Lithium Tokamak Experiment and Principal Research Physicists at PPPL.

Robert Kaita joined PPPL in 1978 after receiving a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from Rutgers University. His present research focuses on plasma-surface interactions and the use of liquid metals as "first-wall" materials for fusion reactors. In the Princeton University Graduate Program in Plasma Physics, Kaita has supervised the research of over two dozen graduate students. He is the author or co-author of nearly 300 publications in nuclear and plasma physics. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a member and past president of the Princeton Chapter of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.

Dick Majeski joined the staff at PPPL in 1992. His research focuses on innovative approaches to the problems of materials and wall constructions for fusion reactors. He has developed techniques which employ liquid metals, especially molten lithium, as protective surfaces in fusion devices. Majeski received a Ph.D. in physics from Dartmouth College in 1979 and was on the research staffs at the University of Maryland and the University of Wisconsin-Madison prior to coming to PPPL. Majeski is a lecturer in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Leonid Zakharov is a member of the PPPL Theory Department. His research centers on the development of lithium-walled tokamak devices as an approach to an economic power reactor. Zakharov received a Ph.D. in plasma physics and chemistry from the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy in Moscow. Prior to coming to PPPL he was a visiting research scientist at MIT and a senior scientist and the Head of the Computer Simulation Group at Kurchatov Institute for Atomic Energy. Zakharov received an award in 1990 from the Romanian Academy Constantine Misculesu for contributions in the physics of thermonuclear plasmas and several scientific awards from the Kurchatov Institute. Zakharov is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

PPPL Director Stewart Prager said, "I applaud the accomplishment Bob, Dick, and Leonid obtained with highly novel experiments at PPPL using a lithium boundary. The multi-fold increase in confinement of energy caused by the lithium surface is a remarkable result. It has triggered many fusion facilities around the world to seek the benefits of lithium, and challenged physicists to provide explanation for the intriguing effect."

Princeton University awards the Kaul Prize to recognize a recent outstanding technical achievement in plasma physics or technology development by a full-time, regular employee of PPPL. It includes a cash award of $5,000 for each recipient. Former PPPL Director Ronald C. Davidson endowed the Kaul Prize by giving to Princeton University a portion of the gift he received as the 1993 recipient of the Award for Excellence in Science, Education, and Physics from the Kaul Foundation.

PPPL Distinguished Engineering Fellow

Lane Roquemore is a senior engineer specializing in plasma diagnostic development. Plasma, the fourth state of matter, is a hot gas that makes up the stars and is used as the fuel to produce fusion energy. Roquemore joined the PPPL staff in 1979 and has worked with both off-site collaborators and PPPL physicists on more than 60 different diagnostic systems for fusion energy experiments. Roquemore received a B.S. in physics from Southwest Texas University in 1972 and an M.S. in physics from the University of Texas in 1975. Prior to joining the PPPL staff in 1979 he worked in solar energy research in Morrison, Colo.

Mike Williams, PPPL Associate Laboratory Director for Engineering and Infrastructure, said, "Lane has been on the front lines supporting diagnostic development and implementation since the early days of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and he has been the go-to guy for getting diagnostics on-line after machine maintenance periods, so this recognition is well deserved." The TFTR operated at PPPL from 1982 to 1997.

The Distinguished Research and Engineering Fellow Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, was created to recognize members of the Laboratory's research staff, as well as engineering and scientific staff, for their accomplishments. Fellows receive one-time gifts of $5,000 and qualify for priority in regard to their research and engineering programs.

by Patti Wieser
pwieser@pppl.gov