Photo: Elle Starkman, PPPL

Jong-Kyu Park with a National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) figure on one screen and an interior image of NSTX on the other.

PPPL physicist Jong-Kyu Park is among 69 scientists across the nation receiving grants under the new Early Career Research Program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

The grants will be drawn from $85 million in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The new effort is designed to bolster the nation's scientific work force by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work.

"This investment reflects the Administration's strong commitment to creating jobs and new industries through scientific innovation," said Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. "Strong support of scientists in the early career years is crucial to renewing America's scientific workforce and ensuring U.S. leadership in discovery and innovation for many years to come."

Park will receive $2.5 million to further his work on developing a numerical tool to calculate the effects of applying small amplitude three-dimensional magnetic fields to fusion devices called tokamaks. These magnetic fields can significantly improve the ability of tokamak vessels to contain fusion reactions.

He received a Ph.D. in plasma physics from Princeton University in 2009 and immediately joined the PPPL staff.

"As a student, Jong-Kyu Park made a seminal contribution to our understanding of how three-dimensional magnetic fields penetrate into a tokamak plasma. This well-deserved award will allow Jong-Kyu to provide new insights into how 3-D fields affect plasma behavior critical to fusion and tokamak physics in general," said PPPL Director Stewart Prager.

Early Career Research awards will also go to several scientists who were educated at PPPL or are currently working on PPPL experiments, including: Stanislav Boldyrev, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Tobin Munsat at the University of Colorado; Jean-Paul Allain at Purdue University; and Vsevolod Soukhanovskii at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

by Patti Wieser
pwieser@pppl.gov