Erik Gilson is a Principal Research Physicist and the Head of PPPL's Discovery Plasma Science Department. He is active in research on laboratory astrophysics experiments using rotating magnetized liquid metals to model accretion disk flows. He carries out experiments on fusion plasma machines around the world where PPPL-built devices drop powdered materials into the plasma to improve plasma performance. He works on neutron detection schemes for nuclear nonproliferation. Prior to that, he built plasma sources for neutralizing compressing ions beams that studied heavy ion fusion concepts. He also studied pure ion plasma confined in linear Paul traps to model the dynamics of intense charged particle beams in accelerator systems. Erik came to PPPL after completing his Ph.D. in physics at U.C. Berkeley. He earned his S.B. in physics at M.I.T.