Rosenbluth Award for Fusion Theory

Honoring and advancing promising younger members of the
Fusion Energy Sciences theoretical community.

General Atomics Welcomes the 2006 GA Rosenbluth Theory Award Recipient Dr. Chris Holland.

Dr. Holland received his doctoral degree from the physics department of the University of California, San Diego, and is currently an assistant research scientist in the Center for Energy Research there. His research has focused on comparing analytic and numerical models of plasma turbulence and zonal flow dynamics against experimental measurements, particularly via the use of bispectral analysis. Examination of Langmuir probe data across the L-H transition demonstrated the existence of nonlinear coupling between finite and near-zero frequency fluctuations, providing some of the first experimental support for the theory of nonlinearly generated shear flows in a tokomak. More recent work has quantified the nonlinear coupling between geodesic acoustic modes and turbulence in the edge of DIII-D, and shown that similar couplings occur in gyrokinetic simulations of the core region. In collaboration with co-workers at UCSD he has demonstrated the existence of a Reynolds stress driven shear flow in a simple plasma experiment (the CSDX machine at UCSD), and has developed a numerical simulation of that experiment. Other work has included investigating the role of coherent structures on nonlinear energy transfer in simulations of plasma turbulence, analytic studies of ETG dynamics (including interactions between ETG and ITG turbulence), and the benchmarking of experimental analysis algorithms and virtual diagnostics in numerical simulation. His future plans include analytic and numerical studies of zonal flow dynamics in the core and edge region and the corresponding impact on differences in turbulence scalings in those regions, investigation of the coupling between drift-wave turbulence and magnetic islands (with D. Brennan), and continued development and testing of novel analysis algorithms for experimental data.

The award is open to fusion theorists worldwide who are in their early careers.
The application deadline for the next award is March 1, 2007.