Funsten, Gustavsen, Johnson, Kline, Kress, Simakov, Werner, Zhu named APS Fellows

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(L to R top row): Herbert Funsten, Richard Gustavsen, Paul Johnson, John Kline; (L to R bottom row): Joel Kress, Evgenya Simikov, James Werner, Jian-Xin Zhu

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The American Physics Society (APS) has announced the selection of new Fellows. Eight of them are Los Alamos researchers, as described in the following paragraphs, below.

The American Physical Society is a nonprofit membership organization formed in 1899 to advance and spread the knowledge of physics. The APS represents more than 51,000 members worldwide and publishes more than a dozen scientific journals. Election to Fellow recognizes exceptional contributions to the physics enterprise.

Herbert O. Funsten (Intelligence and Space Research, ISR-DO). The Topical Group in Plasma Astrophysics nominated him. The APS cited Funsten “for pioneering discoveries of the global structure and dynamics of the plasma interaction of the heliosphere with the interstellar medium, and for leadership of the instrumentation that enabled these discoveries.”

Funsten received a Ph.D. in Engineering Physics from the University of Virginia, and then joined the Lab as a postdoc in 1990. He has led science instruments on NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) and Van Allen Probes missions and national security instruments on the DOE’s Space and Atmospheric Burst Reporting System (SABRS) Validation Experiment (SAVE) and SABRS payloads. The IBEX mission first discovered the “ribbon” of neutral atom emission from the Sun’s interaction with the interstellar medium. He has also participated in NASA’s Cassini, Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers (TWINS), Deep Space 1, Mars Odyssey, and Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) missions. Funsten has received four NASA Group Achievement Awards and four LANL Distinguished Performance Awards. He is a Lab Fellow and has received a Women’s Career Development Award for his mentoring.

Technical contact: Herbert Funsten

Richard L. Gustavsen (Shock and Detonation Physics, M-9). The Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter nominated him. The APS cited Gustavsen “for pioneering studies of the dynamic and high-pressure mechanical and chemical behavior of energetic materials, for shock initiation data used to calibrate reactive burn models, for the development and extension of photon Doppler velocimetry and magnetic particle velocity gauge methods, for mentorship of detonation physicists worldwide, and for leadership and service in the shock physics community.”

Gustavsen received a Ph.D. in Physics from Washington State University. He served as a postdoc at the Institute for Shock Physics, Washington State University, and then joined Los Alamos as a postdoc in the Shock and Detonation Physics group in 1991. Gustavsen became a staff member in 1992. His research includes experimental shock compression physics, shock initiation of solid explosives, reactant and product equations of state for solid explosives, detonation chemical reaction zone measurements, operation of two-stage and single-stage gasguns, magnetic particle velocity gauging, Photonic Doppler Velocimetry (PDV) experiment and analysis, and Isentropic Compression Experiments. He has received three NNSA Awards of Excellence.

Technical contact: Richard Gustavsen

Paul Johnson (Geophysics, EES-17). The APS cited him “for his role in originating and significantly advancing the domain of nonlinear elasticity with a primary focus on earth materials and energy reservoir imaging, and for his role in characterizing dynamical wave interactions on earth faults including fault triggering and dynamically induced memory effects.”

Johnson came to the Lab as a graduate research assistant in 1980. He joined LANL as a staff member in 1984 after earing a Ph.D. in Physical Acoustics from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie at the Sorbonne, Paris. His research includes dynamic triggering of earthquakes and tremor, fault slip characteristics and earthquake physics, seismic strong ground motion and source characteristics, Time Reverse Acoustics and Nonlinearity combined with Time Reversal, applications of nonlinear acoustical nondestructive testing of materials, general acoustics, and rock physics. Johnson is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, American Geophysical Union, Societe Internationale de Mechanique Nonlineaire de Materiaux, and LANL. He has served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar to France and has won the Médaille Étrangère from the Société Française d’Acoustique (French Acoustic Society).

Technical contact: Paul Johnson

John L. Kline (Plasma Physics, P-24). The Division of Plasma Physics nominated him. The APS cited Kline “for seminal contributions to the understanding and development of hohlraum drivers for inertial confinement fusion and their use for radiation transport, hydrodynamic, and ignition science experiments.”

Kline received a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from West Virginia University, and then joined Los Alamos as a postdoctoral researcher in 2002. He investigated the physics of laser plasma interactions in the context of inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and the kinetic and the fluid regimes of electron plasma waves driven by stimulated Raman scattering.

In 2008, Kline became actively involved in the national ICF program, first as an experimentalist at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), and later as a campaign leader. He conducted some of the first experiments on the NIF after the initial completion of the facility.

Kline studied hohlraum radiation drive. Now he leads the first campaign to study beryllium capsules for ICF on the NIF, and is a project leader for the LANL ICF program and a team leader for the radiation hydrodynamics team in P-24.

Technical contact: John Kline

Evgenya Simakov (Accelerators and Electrodynamics, AOT-AE). The Division of Physics of Beams nominated her. The APS cited Simakov “for the development of photonic-band gap accelerating structures.”

Simakov first came to LANL as a visiting graduate student in 2003 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She received a Ph.D. in Physics from MIT. In 2005, she joined the High-Power Electrodynamics Group as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow and in 2007 became a Laboratory staff member. Simakov pioneers development of specially designed structures for high-energy particle accelerators that mitigate undesirable byproducts of high-energy particle acceleration. Her objective is to advance photonic band gap accelerator technology for use in the next generation of particle accelerators for high-energy physics. Superconducting photonic band gap accelerator technology could improve the quality and intensity of accelerated particle beams. This improvement could allow free-electron lasers to deliver extremely intense, short-wavelength laser beams. Simakov has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a five-year research grant from the DOE’s Office of Science Early Career Research Program, the American Physical Society’s Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Beam Physics Award, and led the Photonics Band Gap Structure team to receive a R&D 100 Finalist Award. She has won two LANL Distinguished Performance Team Awards.

Technical contact: Evgenya Simakov

James H. Werner (Center For Integrated Nanotechnologies, MPA-CINT). The Topical Group on Instrument and Measurement Science nominated Werner. The APS cited him “for pioneering contributions to single molecule tracking, optical microscopy, and the development of fluorescent probes for biological imaging and sensing.”

Werner received a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Cornell University and a Hertz Foundation Fellowship. He started his postdoctoral work at LANL in 1998, becoming a staff member in 2001. Werner’s research focuses on biophysics, optics, nanotechnology, and instrument development. He is an author or co-author on over 60 scientific papers and holds three U.S. Patents. Werner has won R&D 100 Awards for “NanoCluster Beacons” and “3D Tracking Microscope.” The Laboratory has honored him with a Los Alamos Distinguished Patent Award and the Los Alamos Postdoctoral Distinguished Mentor Award.

Technical contact: James Werner

Jian-Xin Zhu (Physics of Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, T-4). The Division of Condensed Matter Physics nominated him. The APS cited Zhu “for outstanding and original contributions to correlated electron systems, specifically electronic structure in unconventional superconductors and heavy fermions.”

Zhu obtained a Ph.D. degree in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Hong Kong. Prior to joining LANL in 2001 as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow, he spent four years as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a research assistant professor at the Texas Center for Superconductivity, University of Houston. Zhu became a staff member in T-4. He investigates the impurity problem of strongly correlated electron systems, quantum phase transitions in heavy-fermion systems, and LDA+DMFT electronic structure calculations of strongly correlated electron materials. Zhu is a Partner Science Leader of the Thrust of Theory and Simulation of Nanoscale Phenomena in the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT), and an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and at Rice University. He has received a Laboratory Fellows Prize, Small Team LANL Distinguished Performance Award, Postdoctoral Distinguished Performance Award, and the Li Ka-Shing Prize for the best Ph.D. thesis at the University of Hong Kong.

Technical contact: Jian-Xin Zhu