Press Release
July 30, 2018
Association of Asia-Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS)
Division of Plasma Physics (AAPPS-DPP)

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics– Professor Toshiki Tajima is selected as Laureate of 2018 –The Division of Plasma Physics (Chair: Mitsuru Kikuchi) under the Associationof Asia Pacific Physical Societies (President: Gui-Lu Long) selected Professor
Toshiki Tajima of the University of California at Irvine as the 2018 Laureates of S.
Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics, which is awarded to scientists who havemade seminal / pioneering contributions in the field of plasma physics. The S.
Chandrasekhar Prize is an internationally authoritative annual prize awarded to an
outstanding scientist (s) in the field of plasma physics as a basis for astrophysics orfusion research, and plasma applications. Award ceremony will be held at the 2nd
Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma Physics held in Kanazawa city from November
12-17 in 2018.
Citation: For wide-ranging contributions to plasma physics, in particular for thediscovery and invention of extremely intense (relativistic) laser-driven wakefields asrobust and long-lasting plasma states, with broad impacts on high energy particle
acceleration and other applications, including medicine; in which he exerted
leadership to launch high field science and to form large new research communities.
Prof. Tajima’s invention in the citation is now actively pursued as a revolutionary
new technology to accelerate charges particles to high energy for elementary particle
study as well as medical cancer therapy.
Contact points：
AAPPS-DPP Chair, Mitsuru Kikuchi(National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, NakaFusion Institute)
TEL: +81-29-270-7294, +81-90-2564-0837, FAX: +81-29-270-7264AAPPS-DPP Secretary, Haruo Nagai
TEL: 080-1096-4575
AAPPS-DPP Homepage Address：http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/index.html

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On the Achievements of Professor Toshiki Tajima

Professor Toshiki Tajima (University of California at Irvine, U.S.A.)
Professor Toshiki Tajima is regarded as the father of laser-driven acceleration, as he invented
the concept of Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA) in plasma physics with John Dawson
published in Physical Review Letters (1979). This paper received one of the highest citations in theentire field of plasma physics (WoS: 2927 cites, Google scholar: 4346 cites), reflecting its
fundamental nature and broad impact.
Using his scheme, the accelerating field can be enhanced more than 6 orders of magnitudelarger than the conventional scheme. He predicted even three more orders of magnitude higher fieldusing the tabletop X-ray laser-driven plasma-accelerator. Hundreds of groups and thousands ofresearchers worldwide are hoping to revolutionize the high-energy physics beyond today’s existing
frontiers using his invention. His physics inventions are numerous such as the Relativistic Flying
Mirror (RFM) to generate coherent X-ray pulse, the Radiation Pressure Acceleration (RPA) for thecompact ion acceleration, and the application of this compact ion acceleration to the hadron therapy.
His contribution in physics includes proving the properties of nonlinear vacuum predicted byquantum electrodynamics and explaining the mystery of the cosmic ray acceleration as well as theplasma astrophysics in general. Professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar worked in wide variety ofphysics fields. We can see a similarity in Prof. Tajima’s approach in sciences.
During 2002-2008, Prof Tajima served as Director General of Kansai Research Establishmentof JAERI and Kansai Photon Science Institute (KPSI) of JAEA (now is QST). He served asChairman for International Committee for Ultra Intense Lasers (ICUIL) during 2008-2016. He isrecipient of Robert W. Hamilton Award (1997), Farrington Daniels Award (2005), Suwa Prize(2006), Nishina Memorial Prize (2006), The Blaise Pascal Chair awarded (2009), Einstein
Professorship of Chinese Academy of Science (2013), Enrico Fermi Prize (2015), Academician(Foreign Member), Russian Academy of Sciences (2016). He has outstanding scientific records ofWeb of Science cites more than 16000 (H-index of 57) and Google scholar cites more than 23000(H-index of 70).

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Appendix-1: 2018 S. Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics
The S. Chandrasekhar Prize (http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/prizetable.html) is aninternationally authoritative annual prize awarded to an outstanding scientist (s) in
the field of plasma physics as a basis of astrophysics or fusion research and so on
selected at Asia-Pacific region. Similar level of internationally authoritative annualprizes are James Clarke Maxwell Prize in American Physical Society, Division ofPlasma Physics (https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/maxwell.cfm) and Hannes
Alfven Prize in European Physical Society, Division of Plasma Physics(http://www.epsnews.eu/2017/09/nomination-for-the-eps-hannes-alfven-prize-2018/).

Certificate and medal of 5th S. Chandrasekhar Prize will be given at the Second
Asia-Pacific Conference on Plasma Physics in Nov 12-17 at Kanazawa, Japan.

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Appendix-2: Glossary
1. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: Astrophysicist born in India. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 forhis theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of stars, including theChandrasekhar limit on the mass of white dwarf stars. His research covered several broad areas, as seen from his texts,
which included Principles of Stellar Dynamics (1942), Hydrodynamics and Hydromagnetic Stability (1981), and an
influential book based on his lecture notes in Plasma Physics (1960).
2. AAPPS: Association of Asia-Pacific Physical Societies(HP: http://www.aapps.org/main/index.php): The
Association of physical societies in the Asia Pacific region founded by the Nobel Laureate in Physics C.N. Yang, andProfessor Akito Arima in 1983. The AAPPS held the 12th Asia Pacific Physics Conference under the president (at thattime) Shoji Nagamiya in Makuhari, Japan. The current president is Professor Gui-Lu Long, Tsinghua University, China.
3. AAPPS-DPP: Division of Plasma Physics, AAPPS(HP : http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/index.html): The firstdivision under the AAPPS based on the success of the plasma physics program in the APPC-12. This division wasformed in January 2014 based on the recommendation of Professor Nagamiya at the AAPPS council.
4. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics : This plasma physics prize was founded by theAAPPS-DPP in July 2014. This prize is given to a plasma physicist annually for pioneering and/or seminal contribution
to plasma physics. The 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 prize recipients were Professors S. Ichimaru, P. Kaw, D. B. Melrose,
C. Z. Cheng & L.C. Lee (http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/prizetable.html). The 2018 prize is sponsored by NFRI
(National Fusion Research Institute) in Korea.
The 2018 Selection Committee composed of leading plasma physicists in Asia-Pacific region. The chairman isProfessor Robert Dewar (Australian National University). The members are, Professor Zensho Yoshida (The Universityof Tokyo), Professor Hideo Sugama (National Institute of Fusion Science), Professor Zheng-Ming Sheng (ShanghaiJiaotong University), Professor Xiao-Gang Wang (Harbin Institute of Technology), Professor Chan-He Nam (Gwangju
Institute of Science and Technology), Professor Dong-Hun Lee (Kyung Hee University), Professor Donald B. Melrose(University of Sydney), Professor Ravindra Kumar (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research), Professor A.A. Mamun(Jahangirnagar University), Professor Kerchung Shaing (National Cheng Kung University), and Professor Lou C. Lee(Academia Sinica).
5. H-index: The definition of the index is that a scholar with an index of H has published H papers each of which has
been cited in other papers at least H times.
6. Laser Wakefield Acceleration (LWFA): Particle acceleration method using the nonlinear electron plasma wave andrelativistic effect. Ultra-short pulse lase can produce electrons approaching speed of light and bunching of electrons
produces huge electric field ~200GV/m. LWFA is demonstrated recently in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in
the U.S. accelerating electrons over a distance of just ten centimeter up to 10GeV.

Figure 1: Hokusai’s wave breaks but Tajima’s wakefield will not break due to relativistic effect.
7. Relativistic Flying Mirror (RFM): Relativistic flying mirror in plasmas is thin, dense electron or electron-ion layers
accelerated by high-intensity electromagnetic waves to velocities close to the speed of light in the vacuum. The
reflection of the electromagnetic wave from the relativistic mirror results in its energy and frequency changes suitablefor producing X-ray laser.
8. Radiation Pressure Acceleration (RPA): New method of accelerating ion by transfer of photon momentum to theions. High radiation pressure forces electron clouds to move forward and creates intense electric field to accelerate ions.
9. Hadron Therapy: Radiation therapy is the medical use of ionizing radiation to treat cancer. When the irradiating
beams are made of charged particles (protons and other ions, such as carbon), radiation therapy is called hadron therapy.
Using the laser plasma acceleration, therapy machine can be made compact.

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