Press Release
January 13, 2016
Association of Asia-Pacific Physical Societies (AAPPS)
Division of plasma physics (AAPPS-DPP)

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics- Prof. Predhiman K. Kaw is selected as Laureate of 2015 –The Division of Plasma Physics (Chair: Mitsuru Kikuchi) under
Association of Asia Pacific Physical Societies (President:Seunghwan Kim) selected Prof. Predhiman K. Kaw of the Instituteof Plasma Research as the 2015 Laureate of S. Chandrasekhar Prizeof Plasma Physics, which is awarded to a scientist who has madeseminal / pioneering contribution in the field of plasma physics.
Citation：For his seminal contributions in the areas of laser-plasmainteractions, strongly coupled dusty plasmas, and turbulence,
nonlinear effects in magnetic fusion devices.

Contact point：AAPPS-DPP Chair, Mitsuru Kikuchi(Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Naka Fusion Institute)
TEL: +81-29-270-7294, +81-90-2564-0837
FAX: +81-29-270-7264

AAPPS-DPP Homepage Address：
http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/index.html
Haruo Nagai :TEL: 080-1096-4575

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On the achievement of Prof. Predhiman Kaw

Prof. Predhiman Kaw(Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, India)
Prof. PK Kaw is an internationally recognized plasma physicist who hasmade several outstanding contributions to plasma physics, especiallynonlinear laser-plasma interactions, strong coupling effects in dusty plasmas
and turbulence and nonlinear effects in magnetically confined plasma.
Professor Kaw’s illustrious scientific career had an early start when heobtained his Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi at the young
age of 18 yrs. With over 380 research publications in international journals,
Prof. Kaw has contributed richly to diverse areas of plasma physics andinspired many new areas of research with his original ideas. After research
stints at various laboratories in the world, including the Physical ResearchLaboratory, Ahmedabad and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory,Princeton, U.S.A. he returned to India for good in 1982 and spearheaded theestablishment of a national magnetic fusion program in the country. As thefounder Director of the Institute for Plasma Research he has played a leadingrole in putting India’s fusion program on the international map including full
membership and participation in the ITER collaboration. As DST Year ofScience Chair Professor he continues to be very active in research as well as inmentoring and training the younger generation of plasma physicists in thecountry.

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Appendix 1: We show two important scientific contributions byProfessor Kaw:
1.
Laser-Plasma Interaction: Professor Kaw is a pioneer inlaser-plasma interaction research. He identified and explored this extremelyrich area of physics during its infancy. His prolific work in this area in the latesixties and early seventies was quite foresighted and laid the foundations for a
new field with applications from inertial fusion to basic plasma physics. He
carried out pioneering research on the key interaction processes, including avariety of laser-driven plasma instabilities. Some of these instabilities lead toenhanced absorption, others to enhanced reflection and laser beam
filamentation. In today’s table-top high intensity laser and massive fusion
laser experiments, these are the building blocks that are aiding ourunderstanding of the underlying physical processes. Professor Kaw discovered
several new basic effects, such as light beam trapping as reported in his 1973
paper entitled “Filamentation and Trapping of Electromagnetic Radiation inPlasmas” in which he obtained a variety of elegant analytic and numericalsolutions depicting light filaments and light trapping in a plasma as nonlinear
equilibrium states arising from the interaction of the light beam with theplasma. Many of these states were subsequently verified in numericalsimulations and observed in high power laser experiments.
2.
Strongly-coupled dusty plasmas: Professor Kaw’s highly cited 1998
paper on “Low frequency modes in strongly coupled dusty plasmas” was truly
ground breaking in that it opened the door to at least two major lines ofresearch: (1) the existence of a transverse acoustic wave, which is impossible
in most other kinds of plasmas and therefore something most theorists would
never have imagined, and (2) importing from the statistical physics literaturefor fluids a new theoretical approach for plasmas with strong Coulomb
coupling, namely the Generalized Hydrodynamics Framework. The ideas inthis paper were a very substantial step forward, and they have since been
experimentally validated. This paper remains an inspiration for many
experimenters, and has served as a foundation for many subsequent papers inthe field. Many of the leading theorists in the field of strongly coupledplasmas continue to rely on the Generalized Hydrodynamics method
developed in this paper as a starting point for their own theories.

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Appendix-2: Certificate of S. Chandrasekhar prize of plasma
physics: Certificate and medal will be given at the 13th APPC in Australia on
Dec. 2016.

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Glossary
1. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Astrophysicist born in India. He received Nobel Prize in physics due to his
seminal contribution on black hole (Chandrasekhar limit) in 1983. This
research area is broad and the contribution to the plasma physics is significant
which can be seen from his texts “Principles of Stellar Dynamics (1942)” and“Hydrodynamics and Hydromagnetic Stability (1981)”.
2. AAPPS: Association of Asia-Pacific Physical Societies（HP: http://www.aapps.org/main/index.php）
Association of physical societies in the Asia Pacific region founded by theNobel Prize in physics Laureate, C.N. Yang and Prof. Akito Arima in 1983.
AAPPS held 12th Asia Pacific Physics Conference under the president (at thattime) Shoji Nagamiya in Makuhari, Japan. Current president is Prof. Swan
Kim, Postech, Korea.
3. AAPPS-DPP: Division of Plasma Physics, AAPPS（HP : http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/index.html ）The first division under AAPPS based on the success of the plasma physics
program in the APPC-12. This division is formed January 2014 based on therecommendation of Prof. Nagamiya at the AAPPS council.

4. S. Chandrasekhar Prize of Plasma Physics
Plasma physics prize founded by the AAPPS-DPP on July 2014. This prizeis given to a plasma physicist annually who has made pioneering and/or
seminal contribution to the plasma physics. 2014 prize recipient is Prof. S.
Ichimaru (http://aappsdpp.org/AAPPSDPPF/prizetable.html).
The 2015 selection committee chairman is Prof. Taik Soo Hahm (SeoulNational University) and members are Profs Kunioki Mima (Japan),
Yoshiharu Omura (Japan), Liu Chen (China), Baonian Wan (China), Robert
Dewar (Australia), Tony Murphy (Australia), Rabindranath Pal (India),
Yogesh Saxena (India), Chang-hee Nam (Korea), Lin I (Taiwan).

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