Vol. 12, No. 1 • WINTER 2007

Director Gives State-of-the-Lab Address

Once again turning to a nautical theme for his 11th State-of-the-Lab address, 

PPPL Director Rob Goldston used 1930s 

cartoons to make a point: Popeye had the 

right attitude — all you need is spinach 

— and we have a lot of it at PPPL.

 Goldston, delivering the December 

13 talk to a standing-room-only crowd 

in the MBG Auditorium, summarized 

the past fiscal year, discussing the Lab’s 

experiments and collaborations, on-site 

improvements, Business Operations, and 

safety record and initiatives. He concluded with personal remarks.

“NCSX [National Compact Stellarator Experiment] is making good progress, 

with 14 of 18 coils completed to exacting 

accuracy requirements,” Goldston said, 

adding that coil-to coil assembly starts 

in January. “NCSX had lots of DOE 

reviews, all of them successful. For example, the programmatic and scientific 

review committee emphasized the U.S. 

should have a significant stellarator presence as part of its magnetic fusion energy 

research program, and that NCSX would 

have a profound effect on international 

stellarator research.”

Goldston said the National Spherical 

Torus Experiment (NSTX) had a remarkable range of excellent results this year, 

and PPPL has new design and construction activities under way for ITER, and is 

making major contributions to the ITER 

Design Review. ITER is an international 

fusion experiment being planned for construction in France. He also discussed 

successes in Theory and smaller experiments.

The Director talked about improvements at the Lab, such as “spiffing up” the 

landscape, adding new gym equipment, 

and making PPPL “greener than ever” by 

reducing water usage, non-experimental 

energy use, and fleet fuel consumption. 

Charts Future, Summarizes 

Past Year’s Accomplishments

He praised Business Operations for “doing 

a great job,” noting its Achievement of Excellence in Procurement Award from the 

National Purchasing Institute.

 On safety, he said, “We are undertaking 

numerous initiatives to improve safety at 

the Lab” and noted the Lab-wide November 20 Safety Forum. He emphasized that 

because the Lab wants outstanding safety 

performance, it has to be more thoughtful 

about safety than other institutions. On 

a lighter note, the Director showed how 

the Lab was “having fun” and praised the 

“naval architects” at PPPL for building a 

pirate ship for the PPPL Pirate Picnic in 

September (page 7). He also presented this 

year’s Employee Recognition Awards and 

Kaul Prizes.

 At the conclusion, Goldston discussed 

his personal plans. After more than 10 

years at the helm of PPPL, Goldston announced that he will step down as Director 

to focus his efforts on fusion energy policy, 

on ITER, and on the next major initiatives 

for U.S. fusion. 

“I have been involved in many of fusion’s big policy challenges,” Goldston 

said. “I have now decided, however, that 

after these 10 exciting years, it will be better for the Laboratory — and will let me 

continue to put my own efforts strongly 

into moving fusion forward — if we find a 

new candidate for Director in our proposal 

for the next five-year contract period.” 

Goldston will remain as Director until his 

successor is in place, and plans to remain 

at PPPL after that. The DOE is holding a 

national competition for a new management and operations contract for the Lab, 

which has been managed by the University 

since 1951. This competition is planned 

to be completed by September 30, 2008, 

when Princeton’s current contract ends.

DOE Undersecretary for Science 

Raymond L. Orbach said of Goldston, 

“Our country, and the entire field, owe him 

a debt of gratitude for his scientific leadership and insight.” Ray Fonck, DOE’s 

associate director of the Office of Fusion 

Energy Sciences, commended Goldston 

for his leadership. “I have seen up close 

Rob’s unflagging enthusiasm for fusion 

science and his devotion to moving it forward,” Fonck said. “He has also guided the 

establishment of new levels of collaborations in PPPL experiments, which provides 

us a template for future international and 

national cooperative ventures.”

Goldston concluded by saying, “It has 

been a pleasure and an honor to lead this 

Lab.” Everyone left their seats to give the 

Director a standing ovation. A news release 

is at: http://www.princeton.edu. l
PPPL NEWS • Winter 2007 Page 2

Photo composite by Elle Starkman

By Patti Wieser

now he is also driving forward key scientific analyses for ITER,” said PPPL Director Rob Goldston. ITER is an international fusion 

project being planned for construction in France.

Hawryluk was noted in the FPA award for his scientific leadership in past and present fusion projects at PPPL — including as Head 

of the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) project when it produced record breaking results — and for his “recent involvement with the 

ITER Working Groups that are providing much needed input for final design decisions for ITER.”

“One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about PPPL is the range of opportunities I’ve had here, from being a physics operator of the 

Princeton Large Torus physics to leading the TFTR experiments, to simulations and managing operations at the Lab,” Hawryluk said. His 

proudest accomplishment? “The deuterium-tritium experiments on TFTR were challenging, exciting, and extraordinarily rewarding.”

Outside work, Hawryluk enjoys spending time with his family, including wife, Mary Katherine — whom he describes as “a 

tremendous source of support” — and sons David and Kevin. He is an avid reader, preferring biographies, The First American – The Life 

and Times of Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton, and non-fiction, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century,

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, and Conquering Gotham – A Gilded Age Epic: The Construction of Penn Station 

and Its Tunnel, which are recent reads. Mystery and spy novels sneak into his reading repertoire on long plane trips. 

He lauded the PPPL staff for its accomplishments, dedication, enthusiasm, strong motivation to address the scientific challenges of 

fusion research, and continual support in this effort. “I have an extraordinary respect and appreciation for the people here at the Lab.” l

An exhibit at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows and 

a single shelf on science and technology in a 

neighborhood Brooklyn library piqued thenyoungster Rich Hawryluk — and the future 

fusion world was indelibly changed.

“The World’s Fair actually had a fusion 

exhibit by GE,” said Hawryluk, who wrote 

to the Atomic Energy Commission to find 

out more. “I hadn’t yet taken physics and 

didn’t really think my future would be fixed 

on physics, but I was interested in learning 

more.”

Around the same time, PPPL’s future 

Deputy Director scoured the limited offerings 

at his local library for books of interest before 

encountering a shelf devoted to science and 

engineering, topics he’d gravitated toward.

“I was fascinated by what people 

had done and were doing. Reading about 

these endeavors sparked my interest and 

imagination in science and engineering,” said 

Hawryluk, who attended Brooklyn Technical 

High School and then received B.S. and M.S. 

degrees in physics in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 

physics in 1974, all from MIT, before joining 

the staff at PPPL. “I’ve had a longstanding 

and deep interest in science and its impact on 

society. It was clear to me even in the sixties 

that new sources of energy would be important 

in the future as it had been historically. Fusion 

was an option, but the science and technology needed to be developed to make 

it practical.”

Hawryluk, now a leader in magnetic fusion energy research whose 

career in the field spans 30 years, recently received two honors for 

his outstanding fusion research contributions. He is the recipient of 

the Fusion Power Associates (FPA) 2007 Leadership Award and the 

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow 

award (news release is at: http://www.pppl.gov/RH_Awards07.html). 

Hawryluk received the Leadership Award at the FPA annual meeting 

in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The AAAS recently announced Fellows, who 

will receive certificates and rosette pins at the organization’s annual 

meeting in Boston this February.

“Rich Hawryluk is a great scientific leader and very much 

deserves these awards. His leadership and scientific insights have 

driven forward a long series of successful programs at PPPL, and 

Reflections

of a

Fusion Leader
Page 3 PPPL NEWS • Winter 2007

Technology Transfer Success of PPPL's Miniature

Integrated Nuclear Detection System Awarded

I

n recognition of PPPL’s successful transfer of the Miniature 

Integrated Nuclear Detection System (MINDS), the Federal 

Laboratory Consortium Northeast Region recently presented 

the Laboratory with the Excellence in Technology Transfer 

Award. An anti-terrorism technology, MINDS was developed 

for detection of the radiation emitted from a nuclear threat, 

such as a dirty bomb or from dangerous nuclear material. This 

technology employs a conventional off-the-shelf hardware approach to detecting the nuclear radiation spectrum coupled with 

an innovative detection scheme.

“I am very pleased that technology we have developed here 

at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory can be applied to 

enhance the security of our nation,” said PPPL Director Rob 

Goldston.

Using a sodium iodide scintillating crystal to detect X-ray 

and gamma radiation, the emitted signal is then coupled to a 

multi-channel analyzer (MCA) with appropriate amplification. 

The output of the MCA is analyzed by the propriety software 

developed by PPPL for the identification of specific sources 

of radiation that may be associated with the threat of nuclear 

terrorism. The analysis is generally done in a laptop or other 

conventional computing environment.

In 2005, Princeton University signed a licensing agreement 

with InSitech, a not-for-profit organization that brings government-developed technology to market. “Since we started on the 

path of developing MINDS for homeland security purposes, the 

system has been successfully deployed at a major commuter rail 

station in the northeast, at the Port of Oakland in California, at a 

U.S. military base, and with an international security company. 

Currently, plans are underway to employ MINDS algorithms in 

hand-held detectors that are being developed by SAIC [Science 

Applications International Corporation]. I find it particularly 

satisfying that our Laboratory is able to support the country in the 

current war on terrorism, in parallel with pursuing our primary 

mission of developing viable fusion energy,” said MINDS team 

head Charles Gentile. l

From left, MINDS team members Charles Gentile, Kenny Silber, Dana 

Mastrovito, and Bill Davis test the system. Other members of the team 

not pictured are Andy Carpe, Steve Langish, and Lewis Meixler.

APPPL-MIT collaboration on the Alcator C-Mod machine has resulted in the demonstration of a greatly 

improved X-ray crystal spectrometer. Alcator C-Mod is a 

fusion experiment at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion 

Center in Massachusetts. 

Experiments conducted by a PPPL-MIT team earlier 

this year mark the beginning of a new era in the ability 

of such devices to determine radial profiles of the ion 

temperature and the rotational velocity of high temperature plasmas without the need for diagnostic beams. 

Their success will benefit substantially ITER and other 

advanced fusion energy systems. ITER is an international 

fusion project being planned for construction in France. 

The U.S. is one of seven ITER partners. l

The PPPL-MIT spectrometer collaboration team includes, from left, 

MIT's Alex Ince-Cushman, PPPL's Ken Hill and Manfred Bitter, MIT's 

John Rice, and Christian Broennimann of the Paul Scherrer Institute 

in Switzerland.

PPPL Collaborates with MIT on X-Ray Crystal Spectrometer
PPPL NEWS • Winter 2007 Page 4

Stix Prize Winner Granstedt Attends ITER Summer School in France

Prize Joins the Past, Present, and Future of Plasma Physics

Princeton University graduate student Erik Granstedt was 

among 78 international students 

attending the first ITER Summer 

School, thanks to a fund created in 

memory of plasma physics giant 

Tom Stix.

Granstedt, winner of the 

2007 Thomas H. Stix ’54 Plasma 

Physics Prize, used the award to 

participate in the week-long summer school, “Turbulent Transport 

in Fusion Plasmas.” The school 

was held in Aix-en-Provence, 

France: about an hour from 

Cadarache, the future site of 

ITER. 

ITER (Latin for “the way”) 

is a large international fusion experiment aimed at demonstrating 

the scientific and technological 

feasibility of fusion energy. Seven 

partners, including the U.S., are 

participating in the project, with 

operations expected to begin in 

2016.

“We listened to lecturers 

from all over the world whose 

talks focused on science issues 

related to ITER,” Granstedt said, 

adding that PPPL’s Roscoe White and T.S. 

Hahm were among 21 presenters.

He said the students got a chance to 

talk to the school’s speakers during coffee breaks and at a dinner reception. One 

day they took a side trip to Tore Supra, the 

French tokamak at Cadarache. They also 

visited lavender fields and found out about 

the distillation process for lavender oil.

Although the talks were in English, 

novice European visitor Granstedt benefited 

from striking up friendships with fellow 

students. “On the first day I arrived, I met a 

student from Russia who helped me get my 

bearings because he spoke some French,” 

he said.

Once the school concluded, Granstedt 

took a side trip to the plasma physics lab 

at Ecole Polytechnique and ended his trip 

sightseeing with his wife in Paris. PPPL’s 

Nat Fisch had gotten in touch with a friend 

at Ecole Polytechnique about hosting 

Granstedt’s visit to the plasma physics 

experiments.

A second-year graduate student, Granstedt spent his first year at PPPL conducting 

research on Hall thrusters with Fisch and 

Yevgeny Raitses. “Cross-field turbulent 

transport is common to both,” he said of 

his summer school education and his year’s 

work on the thruster. The prize winner, who 

grew up in Honduras and Ecuador before 

his family settled in San Diego, came to 

Princeton after receiving bachelor’s and 

master’s degrees in applied physics from 

Caltech in 2004 and 2005. “I deferred 

for a year to go to Japan with my wife for 

Christian work,” he said.

When he found out about the Stix 

Prize, he submitted a two-page proposal 

outlining how he would use the prize money 

and describing why it would be beneficial 

for him to participate in the ITER summer 

school program.

By Patti Wieser

Erik Granstedt at the Eiffel Tower.

Granstedt had heard about 

Stix when he began studying 

physics. “Stix was one of a generation of great leaders in plasma 

physics, and I knew of his waves 

book [The Theory of Plasma 

Waves],” he said. “I see him as 

one of the founding fathers of 

plasma physics.”

Stix was the founder and 

longtime director of graduate 

studies for the University’s 

Program in Plasma Physics and 

a leader in the development of 

plasma physics. He died in 2001. 

A fund, co-organized by PPPL’s 

Greg Hammett, was created in 

his memory to establish a prize 

for first and second-year graduate 

students studying plasma-related 

topics. The prize would enable international travel for conferences 

or research. PPPL’s Hong Qin and 

Randy Wilson made up the selection committee in 2007.

This year’s prize brings 

together a plasma physics great 

from the past, a student of the 

present, and a plasma physics 

project of the future: Stix, Granstedt, and ITER.

Of receiving the prize, Granstedt offered, “I feel really honored.” He said it 

was fitting that the prize be used to support 

an international trip for a plasma physics 

student because he understood that Stix 

appreciated science’s role in promoting 

international dialogue and understanding.

By using it to attend international conferences, students establish connections with 

others around the world involved in similar 

research. Granstedt’s experience at the ITER 

summer school enabled him to connect with 

others in the field — from student peers to 

researchers.

He said he believed the ITER summer 

school was meant to foster the interest of 

future fusion scientists and educate them 

about key ITER issues.

So might he end up being a researcher 

at ITER when it begins operating around 

2016? “Perhaps.” l
Page 5 PPPL NEWS • Winter 2007

Ruslan Fridman (left), a senior at Livingston High School, works on 

a dusty plasma chamber with his research partner, Mike Hvasta, a 

senior at the College of New Jersey. 

The future of nuclear fusion and its promise of limitless, clean energy arrived at PPPL last summer in the form of 28 

budding scientists, many of them still in their teens.

This contingent of top-notch university and high school 

students from across the country gathered for a summer of 

intensive lab work in plasma physics, the field that could someday provide a way to create power the way the Sun does—by 

pressing two uncommon forms of hydrogen together until they 

combine to form helium atoms, releasing a burst of energy in 

the process.

Because a practical fusion reactor may still be decades away, 

the current generation of fusion experts is already preparing to 

pass their nuclear torch on to the next, and the Lab’s research 

internship program aims to provide a smooth hand-off.

“As a Lab, just as at the University, we want to train the next 

generation of scientists,” said Andrew Zwicker, Head of PPPL’s 

Science Education Program. “The point is to give them a real 

lab experience, with nothing canned, from the initial research 

to presenting the results at a national conference. We want to 

give them the most hands-on training we possibly can.”

Providing this experience requires the joint commitment 

of a score of Lab scientists, who mentor the students; Princeton University, which provides room and board; and the U.S. 

Department of Energy, which funds the internship program. 

This marks the 16th year that student groups have come to the 

Lab for summer training, which Zwicker said is crucial to the 

future of the field.

“We track our students for up to eight years after they finish 

the program, and it turns out it makes a big difference in their 

career choices,” he said. “We find that if we don't expose bright 

students to plasma physics when they are getting started, we 

lose them to other fields.”

The university students spent their first week at PPPL in an 

intensive introduction to the physics of plasmas. Plasmas are 

hot, ionized gases used as the fuel in the production of fusion 

energy. The next nine weeks were spent in labs, working with 

scientists on research projects.

Mike Hvasta, a physics major at The College of New Jersey, 

said he was excited to spend his summer in Princeton with a dusty 

plasma chamber. Dusty plasmas form the tail of comets. “Learning about dusty plasmas helps us understand things like the rings 

of Saturn,” said Hvasta, whose mentor was Zwicker.

Hvasta, who intends to go on for an advanced degree in 

physics, said he grew more comfortable with his career choice 

as he spent time with the Lab’s state-of-the-art equipment. “It’s 

rewarding knowing what we’re doing will contribute to the scientific body of knowledge, and tinkering with these machines 

helps me to really learn about them.”

Two weeks after the university students arrived, an additional 

10 high schoolers joined them in the Lab.

Zwicker said the research process is rigorous, but the numbers 

show it gives students the background they need to continue in 

the field. “Of the students who finish the summer program, about 

two-thirds go on to get an advanced degree in physics, math or 

engineering, and a fifth of those specialize in plasma physics,” 

Zwicker said.

Joshua Kallman, who finished the summer program in 2005, 

is now in his second year of graduate school in plasma physics at 

Princeton. “I wasn't sure at that point what subfield of physics I 

wanted to study, and my time here inspired me to choose plasma 

physics as my career path,” said Kallman. “I like the connection 

to fusion, to creating power. But it’s also because I liked the work. 

I had a really great mentor, and the experience has led me to a 

great Lab here at the Forrestal Campus too.” l

PPPL Summer Program Empowers Next Generation of Plasma Scientists

By Chad Boutin

PPPL physicist Hantao Ji with a summer student at the lab.

Photo by Denise Applewhite
PPPL NEWS • Winter 2007 Page 6

PPPL’s Anderson Has Spent Lifetime Being Prepared

Glenn Anderson and his wife, Lisa, and daughters Kristen and Allyson, attend Anderson’s 

Coast Guard retirement ceremony.

You could say PPPL’s Glenn Anderson was born with sea legs. By the time 

he was 11 they were well developed. “I 

grew up with the Sea Scouts. We cruised 

boats instead of pitching tents like the 

Boy Scouts,” said Anderson, who came 

on board in 2006 as an electrical safety 

representative for the ES&H group.

His fascination with the sea and boating continued as an adult. This summer, 

the Point Pleasant resident retired from the 

U.S. Coast Guard with 20 years of service, 

including fours years on active duty and 

16 on reserve. He was activated for 9-11 

and Operation Restore Iraqi Freedom in 

2003.

“I joined the Coast Guard when I 

graduated from high school and traveled all 

over aboard the Icebreaker Glacier — Antarctica, the Arctic, Fiji, Tahiti, American 

Samoa, New Zealand, Australia, and South 

America,” said Anderson. 

While enlisted he attended electricians 

school at Governors Island. Anderson is a 

N.J. licensed electrical contractor and N.J. 

electrical sub-code official. At the Lab 

he comments on electrical safety issues 

concerning peer labs, and is involved in 

PPPL design reviews and final electrical 

inspections.

After active duty, Anderson married 

Lisa Adams. “Basically on the weekends 

we are on the water,” he said. The family 

has a Boston Whaler, kayaks, paddleboats, 

and sailboats, and both daughters, Kristen 

and Allyson, have their boating licenses. 

The latest acquisition for the Anderson 

fleet is a 24-foot Sea Ray. “It was idle for 

about three years, but the engine is in great 

shape,” he said.

The sea and all things nautical have 

always entranced Anderson. “There was 

a scout unit three blocks from my house 

when I was growing up and a buddy of 

mine had joined. I went down to the unit 

when I was 11 and never left until the unit 

folded,” he recalled, noting that nearly 

every weekend was spent there as a teen. 

“I was never home when I was a kid. I 

was always working on the engines and 

maintaining the boat.”

The unit, with adult leadership, restored a 1954, 63-foot Aviation Rescue 

boat used by the Corps of Engineers’ 

as an officers’ party boat. The boat was 

completely restored to original specifications. “As teen scouts, we cruised the boat 

to Canada and North Carolina, and also 

used it to practice Army ROTC maneuvers 

with local colleges. It had been used as an 

Air Force rescue boat to rescue downed 

pilots,” he said. After his military stint, 

he sailed as a civilian electrician with the 

U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command 

and did a couple of tours of duty in the 

Mediterranean, and the North and South 

Atlantic. Shortly after Desert Storm he 

re-enlisted with the Coast Guard Reserve 

and was a qualified small boat engineer. 

He said being a reservist required spending 

two weeks each summer and one weekend 

a month on the boats.

Glen was honored for his years of 

Coast Guard service in July during a flag 

ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard Station 

in Point Pleasant. Retiring from the Coast 

Guard, however, will not mean less time on 

the sea. “I’m more comfortable on boats. I 

can navigate better on water than on land,” 

Anderson said. l

The PPPL NEWS is issued by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, a research facility supported by the United States Department of Energy 

and managed by Princeton University. Correspondence and requests to reprint material should be directed to: Information Services, Princeton 

Plasma Physics Laboratory, P.O. Box 451, Princeton, NJ 08543; telephone 609-243-2750; fax 609-243-2751; e-mail pppl_info@pppl.gov .

PPPL NEWS

Information Services Head: Anthony R. DeMeo

Editor/Writer: Patti Wieser

Photographer: Elle Starkman

Layout and Graphics: Greg Czechowicz 
Page 7 PPPL NEWS • Winter 2007

The Lab’s “pirates” gathered on the front lawn at lunchtime on 

September 10 for the ship-side Pirates of PPPL Picnic. The USS 

Plasma crew and friends enjoyed food and buccaneer games, and 

had boatloads of fun. ARRRRR!
PPPL NEWS • Winter 2007 Page 8

Stellarator Coils Shape Up

PPPL technician Doug Voorhees (above) is installing chill plates on a modular coil at PPPL’s National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX) Coil Winding Facility. The machine is being built at PPPL in partnership with Oak Ridge National 

Laboratory, with operations expected to begin in 2011. The stellarator’s 18 modular field coils are among the most complex, 

innovative electromagnets ever designed. Six each of three coil types are being fabricated. More information about the project 

is on the web at: http://www.pppl.gov/nationalcompactstellarator.cfm l

Photo by Elle Starkman