VOL. 4, NO. 2 • FALL 2000

PPPL Garners Technology Transfer Award

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma

Physics Laboratory (PPPL) recently received a Regional Laboratory Award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC). The award from the

FLC Northeast Region recognizes PPPL’s “extraordinary

efforts” to further national and regional technology transfer

activities during 1999.

PPPL Technology Transfer Head Lewis Meixler accepted a plaque on behalf of the Laboratory during an FLC

Northeast Regional meeting at the consortium’s national

gathering in Charleston, South Carolina, in May. The award

honors PPPL for promoting technology transfer through

collaborations with small businesses on the development of

scientific instrumentation, work with other agencies to support the development and transfer of technology, and Science-on-Saturday lecture series.

PPPL Director Rob Goldston said, “We are very pleased

to be recognized for our efforts in technology transfer. It is

an important part of our program as a Department of Energy

Laboratory to assure that the technologies we develop have

a positive impact on the nation.”

The FLC, organized in 1974 to promote and facilitate

the rapid movement of federal laboratory research results

and technologies into the mainstream U.S. economy, includes more than 700 major federal labs and centers and

their parent departments and agencies as members. ●

PPPL Director Rob Goldston (left) and PPPL Technology Transfer

Head Lewis Meixler hold the Regional Laboratory Award that PPPL

received from the Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology

Transfer.

Lucas Named Head of Science Education Program

Pamela Lucas is the newly named Head of PPPL’s

Science Education Program. Lucas, who joined the

Laboratory’s Science Education staff six years ago, has been

Acting Head for the past eight months. She replaces Diane

Carroll, who is Executive Director of the Invention Factory

Science Center in Trenton.

As Head, Lucas is responsible for overseeing educational programs for students and teachers from all levels, as

well as for implementing new educational and outreach

initiatives at the Laboratory.

Present programs range from the

National Undergraduate Fellowship Research Program and the

Energy Research Undergraduate

Laboratory Fellowships, to the

New Jersey regional competition

Continued on page 3
PPPL NEWS • Fall 2000 Page 2

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 info@pppl.gov .

PPPL NEWS

Information Services Head: Anthony R. DeMeo

Editor/Writer: Patti Wieser

Photographer: Elle Starkman

Layout and Graphics: Gregory J. Czechowicz

and Patti Wieser

To honor inventors who received patents, applied for patents, and disclosed inventions during Fiscal Year 1999, the

Laboratory held the eighteenth annual Patent Recognition Dinner at Princeton University’s Prospect House in June.

The thirty-five inventors recognized are from the Research, Engineering, and Technical staffs of the Laboratory, as well

as from other institutions that work in collaboration with PPPL. The inventors who attended the Patent Dinner are, from left,

Martin Peng, Nathaniel Fisch, Joel Hosea, John Schmidt, Allen Boozer, Hyeon Park, Elizabeth Foley, Nevell Greenough,

Yevgeny Raitses, Leonid Zakharov, Keith Rule, Gennady Shvets, Robert Woolley, and Geoff Gettelfinger. Not pictured

are Samuel Cohen, Douglass Darrow, Philip Efthimion, Nikolai Gorelenkov, Paul Kivler, R. Majeski, V.M. Malkin, Dennis

Mansfield, Evgeni Muraviev, Stephen Paul, Wayne Reiersen, Gary Taylor, and Roscoe White. ●

PPPL Inventors Honored at Patent Dinner
Page 3 PPPL NEWS • Fall 2000

of the National Science Bowl® and the Science-on-Saturday lecture series. They also include several educational

partnerships with local communities, such as the Trenton

Partnership, which focuses on family outreach, teacher

professional development, school support, and increased

opportunities for students from the Trenton School District.

“My goal is to maintain and build on our existing

programs, as well as to develop new programs for reaching

out to students, educators, and the community. I also want to

make sure the systems and structures are in place to support

positive experiences for students and teachers,” said Lucas,

who looks forward to her continuing work with students.

“What I find exciting about the field of science education is

having a role in inspiring and training the next generation of

scientists — from children in elementary schools to graduate students.”

Lucas has bachelor’s degrees in biology and in natural

science and mathematics from Rutgers University and from

Thomas Edison State College, respectively. She worked in

private industry before coming to PPPL. At the Lab, she has

been a Science Education administrator and program leader,

and has been Diversity Officer since 1994, a post she will

continue to hold. ●

Post-Zwicker Named Lead Scientist, Sci Ed Programs

Andrew Post-Zwicker has been appointed Lead Scientist, Science Education Programs, at PPPL.

Post-Zwicker will be responsible for creating and implementing the initiatives that result in the Science Education

Program becoming a local and national leader in science

education reform. Since joining PPPL’s Science Education

Program staff as a Senior Program Leader in 1997, he has

expanded the Internet Plasma Physics Educational

eXperience (IPPEX) and created the Plasma Camp program. IPPEX is an interactive educational experience that

teaches users about plasma physics and fusion energy at a

precollege level; Plasma Camp is an intensive two-week

summer program of lectures, lab work, and curriculum

design for high school physics teachers who are selected

nationwide. In his new role, Post-Zwicker plans to create

new programs for local high school students and community

college professors nationwide, design and teach an undergraduate-level plasma sciences course, and create new

internet education sites. He said his first goal is to establish

a Plasma Science Education Center at PPPL. “I hope to use

this center as a focal point for introducing a new generation

of students and teachers to the beauty, complexity, and

utility of plasmas — from computer chip manufacturing and

lighting today to fusion energy tomorrow,” Post-Zwicker

said.

After receiving a bachelor’s degree in physics from

Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1986,

Post-Zwicker went on to receive a master’s and a Ph.D. in

physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1988 and 1992,

respectively. He conducted post-doctoral research for Oak

Ridge National Laboratory at PPPL and at a fusion science

laboratory in Jülich, Germany. Post-Zwicker always thought

he would have the “standard research career,” but during his

first year as a post-doc researcher, he began working with an

urban high school student and found the experience enriching. “Helping a student learn is one of the most rewarding

things you could ever do with your scientific training,” said

Post-Zwicker, who hails from a family of teachers. That first

student he mentored, by the way, is now in medical school.

He is a member of the American Physical Society’s

Executive Committee for the Forum on Education and the

Committee on Science Education for the Division of Plasma

Physics, and is an author on more than 30 articles in a variety

of journals. ●

Andrew Post-Zwicker

Lucas

Continued from page 1
PPPL NEWS • Fall 2000 Page 4

Summer Sizzles with Teacher Workshops and Plasma Camp

The lure of aquatic insects, fusion reactions, electric

circuits, and parachutes drew both local and distant

teachers to summer science workshops organized, in part,

by PPPL’s Science Education Program staff. From July 24

through August 4, forty-five elementary and middle school

teachers from Trenton, Burlington City, and Florence, New

Jersey, participated in one-week “Sizzling Summer Science” sessions either at PPPL or at the Samuel Smith

Elementary School in Burlington. In addition, a two-week

“plasma camp” for high school science teachers was held at

the Lab in July.

During the Sizzling Summer Science workshops led by

experts from the Liberty Science Center, Compaq Computers, PPPL, and Georgian Court College, teachers conducted

experiments and developed inquiry-based teaching skills.

Burlington and Florence teachers were at the Smith Elementary School and Trenton teachers were at PPPL. On two

days, each respective group took a field trip to the Stony

Brook-Millstone Watershed in Pennington to study aquatic

insects.

Plasma Camp, officially called the Plasma Science and

Fusion Energy Institute, was an intensive two-week summer

program of lectures, lab work, and curriculum design for

high school physics teachers who were selected nationwide.

Thirteen teachers participated in this year’s institute, which

was hosted by PPPL for the third summer. The goal was to

help teachers develop curricular materials for physics classes,

making the subject of plasma and fusion accessible to high

school pupils. As part of the workshop, teachers actually

conducted experiments in the Current Drive ExperimentUpgrade to study plasma behavior. Three of the thirteen

teachers had been involved in last year’s plasma camp and

returned this year to assist with the program.

Unique Opportunity

Andrew Post-Zwicker, Lead Scientist for PPPL’s Science Education Program, who designed and led the institute,

said, “Plasma Camp is a unique opportunity for teachers

from all over the country to engage in cutting- edge research

and bring the excitement and beauty of plasmas to their

At left, teachers Steve Brehmer

and Stephanie Connors, Plasma

Camp participants back for a second time, prepare the Current

Drive Experiment-Upgrade for a

plasma experiment. Below, Trenton and Burlington teachers make

parachutes during a physical science workshop at PPPL. First they

constructed the parachutes from

instructions and then designed

their own and developed experiments. These exercises were to

show the differences between

“cookbook” science and inquirybased science. From left around

the table are Trenton teacher

Denise Mylowe, Burlington

teacher Ed Alfaro, and Trenton

teacher Brenda Koonce. On page

5 are teachers collecting aquatic

insects during a life sciences exercise at the Stony Brook-Millstone

Watershed.

Continued on page 5
Page 5 PPPL NEWS • Fall 2000

PPPL, Berkeley, and Livermore Form Virtual Lab

PPPL has joined forces with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National

Laboratory in a memorandum of agreement to create a

“virtual lab” that will conduct research on heavy ion inertial

fusion energy.

Three Labs Collaborate

Under the agreement, funded through the Department of

Energy’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, the three laboratories will collaborate on the new Heavy Ion Fusion

Virtual National Laboratory (HIF-VNL). The labs will work

together on “conducting heavy ion driver development and

related topics in the common pursuit of Inertial Fusion

Energy, and promoting more rapid progress in the development of heavy ion drivers through technical management

integration of the laboratories’ scientific staff, equipment,

and experimental facilities.”

In heavy ion fusion, high-powered beams of heavy ions

ignite pea-sized capsules of deuterium and tritium fuel. The

fuel burns so quickly it is confined by its own inertia long

enough for the reaction to produce energy. Roger Bangerter,

of Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator and Fusion Research Division, a long-time leader in heavy ion fusion research, will be

the Director of the HIF-VNL. The Deputy Directors will be

Grant Logan of the Livermore Lab and Ronald Davidson of

PPPL.

Said Davidson, “The HIF-VNL provides an excellent

opportunity for PPPL researchers to have a major technical

impact on the development of heavy ion fusion, particularly

in critical physics and engineering areas related to intense

nonneutral beam propagation, final focus optimization studies, and beam-plasma interactions in the target chamber.”

The HIF-VNL agreement has been publicly hailed by

Stephen Dean, president of the Fusion Power Associates, an

independent fusion advocacy group, as proof that DOE’s

non-weapons labs can still collaborate on research projects

with the weapons labs even though the latter are now a part

of National Nuclear Security Administration. ●

— Provided by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

students.” Nick Guilbert, Head of the Science Department at

the Peddie School in Hightstown, co-led the institute.

Plasma Camp was funded by the Department of Energy’s

Office of Fusion Energy Sciences. Sizzling Summer Science was a program of Teaching Science Matters, funded by

an Eisenhower Professional Development grant from the

New Jersey Department of Education. The workshops were

provided through a collaboration involving Princeton University, PPPL, and the Invention Factory Science Center in

Trenton. ●

The following people were involved in leading the Sizzling

Summer Science workshops:

Erin Peacock, Chris Manno, and Russ Walsh

— Montgomery Township Schools

Betty Faber — Liberty Science Center

Dave Cochran — Georgian Court College

Richard Catena — Compaq Computer Corp.

Andrew Post-Zwicker — PPPL

Jeff Hoagland — Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed

Anthony Fredericks, consultant

Continued from page 4
PPPL NEWS • Fall 2000 Page 6

Herrmann Awarded

for Doctoral Dissertation

President and Energy Secretary Honor PPPL’s Shvets

Earlier this year, PPPL

physicist Gennady

Shvets received awards

from President Clinton

and from Energy Secretary Bill Richardson.

Shvets was among 60

young researchers President Clinton named as recipients of the fourth annual Presidential Early

Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers and

among five recipients of

the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science

Early Career Awards in Science and Engineering.

The Presidential citation, which this year’s honorees

received during a springtime White House ceremony, is the

highest honor bestowed by the United States government on

young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers. Established by President Clinton in February

of 1996, the award embodies the high priority the AdminisGennady Shvets

tration places on producing outstanding scientists and engineers ready to contribute to all sectors of the economy. Eight

Federal departments and agencies join together annually to

nominate the most meritorious young scientists and engineers who will broadly advance the science and technology

that will be of the greatest benefit to fulfilling the agencies’

missions. The young scientists and engineers receive up to

a five-year research grant to further their study in support of

critical government missions. The Federal agencies involved are: the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce,

Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Veterans

Affairs; the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and the National Science Foundation.

Prior to the White House ceremony, Shvets received a

DOE Office of Science Early Career Award in Science and

Engineering from Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson.

 Shvets was cited “for theoretical and computational

investigations of the interaction of ultra-strong laser pulses

with plasmas (hot, ionized gases), with applications to

inertial confinement fusion, to plasma-based particle accelerators, to new radiation sources based on beams and plasmas.” ●

Former PPPL graduate student Mark Herrmann is the

winner of the 2000 Award for Outstanding Doctoral

Dissertation in Plasma Physics. The award, sponsored by

General Atomics, was established to recognize exceptional

Carroll Receives Education

and Outreach Award

I

n July, former PPPL Science Education Program Head

Diane Carroll received a Special Award for Education

and Outreach for the year 2000. The award from Fusion

Power Associates (FPA) honors Carroll for spreading the

fusion message to students, teachers, and the general public

through PPPL’s outreach and education programs. Carroll

is one of three recipients of the newly created award. The

Diane Carroll

others are Don Correll of the

Lawrence Livermore National

Laboratory and Carol Danielson

of General Atomics.

The awards were part of the

FPA’s annual meeting and symposium at the University of California at San Diego. Carroll is

presently the Executive Director

of the Invention Factory Science

Center in Trenton.●

Mark Herrmann

young scientists who have performed

original doctoral thesis work of outstanding scientific quality and achievement in the area of plasma physics.

Herrmann’s citation states, “With elegant use of analytical theory and computation, and insightful comparisons

to experiment, this thesis lays the foundation for how radio frequency waves

might cool fusion byproducts in a tokaMark Herrmann

mak.” The award will be presented at the October American

Physical Society’s Divison of Plasma Physics meeting in

Quebec. Herrmann, who is now at the Lawrence Livermore

National Laboratory, received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in Astrophysical Sciences, Program of Plasma Physics, in 1998. ●
Page 7 PPPL NEWS • Printed on recycled paper. Fall 2000

Earlier this year, Professor Sylvester J. Gates, of the

University of Maryland, presented a colloquium at

PPPL entitled, “Einstein’s Dream at the End of the Millennium,” as well as led a small group discussion, “Diversity in

the Scientific Workforce.” Professor Gates’ visit, hosted by

the Director’s Minority Advisory Committee (DMAC), was

in support of Black History Month. A leader in the AfricanAmerican scientific community, Gates’ field of study is

theoretical elementary particle physics and quantum field

theory, with particular interest in the topic known as

“supersymmetry.” From left are PPPL Science Education

Program Head Pamela Lucas, Gates, and DMAC Chairperson Andrea Moten. ●

Physicist Gates Visits Lab

The U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Laboratories house world-class facilities where

more than 30,000 scientists and engineers perform cutting-edge research spanning DOE’s science,

energy, national security, and environmental quality missions. Interested in the latest achievements of

the National Laboratories? Then visit the DOE Pulse at: http://www.ornl.gov/news/pulse/. DOE Pulse

is distributed twice each month. Each issue includes research highlights, updates on collaborations

among laboratories, and profiles of individual researchers.

Charles Neumeyer,

lead project engineer

for the National Spherical

Torus Experiment (NSTX)

at PPPL, was recently

named “Engineer of the

Year” by the Professional

Engineering Society of

Mercer County (PESMC).

Neumeyer (at right) received the citation during

a PESMC awards banquet

earlier this year. According to the PESMC, the

group chose Neumeyer

Neumeyer Named

Engineer of the Year

based on his “achievements with the National Spherical

Torus Experiment and on having a distinguished career in

fundamental research dealing with multiple technologies

that hold great promise for the future.”

As NSTX project engineer, Neumeyer was responsible

for integrating the many physics and engineering requirements and developing the overall engineering design of the

NSTX. He was also responsible for leading the integrated

testing phases which led to the first plasma (hot, ionized gas)

operation ten weeks ahead of schedule and the demonstration of full plasma operation at one million amperes of

plasma current more than nine months ahead of schedule.

The success of this program is due, in large part, to

Neumeyer’s breadth of knowledge and dedication to the

tasks at hand. ●
PPPL NEWS • Fall 2000 Page 8

Bretz Honored for Science-on-Saturday Work

Organizing talks for the Lab’s Science-on-Saturday

lecture series could be a worrisome task.

Just ask PPPL physicist Norton Bretz (pictured above),

who recently stepped down as Chairperson of the series. A

persistent thought nagged him prior to every talk: What if the

speaker doesn’t show up?

During his eight years as Chairperson or Co-chairperson, his concern was for naught. All the speakers arrived

without fail. The only scare occurred when one of the

presenters came to the Lab and sat down in the Auditorium,

waiting to be introduced. Bretz, thinking she hadn’t arrived

yet, kept talking to the audience and stalling. Finally, he said,

“The speaker should be here any minute.” She popped up in

the front row and said, “I’m here.”

Earlier this year, Lab staff honored Bretz for his Science-on-Saturday efforts by presenting him with a plaque

bearing the citation, “In appreciation of your commitment

and dedication to PPPL’s Science-on-Saturday Program

from 1992-2000.” Bretz, who is retiring from PPPL in

January, stepped down as Chairperson at the conclusion of

the series this spring. Bretz said his goal was to offer a varied

group of speakers and topics. “There are a lot of possibilities

for keeping this series diverse. Science enters into many

aspects of our lives, and there are many different personal

styles with which people practice science. Jhane Barnes,

one of the speakers this past season, is an entrepreneur

fashion designer who uses computers and mathematical

models to generate fabric patterns. Professor Paul Lansky,

the Chairman of the Princeton University Music Department, spoke last year about composing and creating music

with computers. Some scientists look like car mechanics,

others like students, and still others like classical professors,

and they present science in many different ways,” he said.

By offering talks in astrophysics, math, biology, earth

science, computer technology, ecology, chemistry, and

physics, the audience, composed mostly of students, is

exposed to a variety of scientific topics and sees a wide

range of opportunities in the sciences.

The Chairperson said the series has been popular since

its inception a decade and a half ago. It is a free, wintertime

series geared toward high school students, but open to

everyone. The age of attendees ranges from 8 to 80, and

often parents, siblings, and teachers accompany students to

the talks. Presently, Bretz is assisting PPPL’s Ron Hatcher,

Janardhan Manickam, and the Lab’s Science Ed staff in

organizing the line-up for the 2001 series.

When choosing a speaker, one plus is if the presenter is

a parent. “People with kids are good candidates because

they know the audience and have a natural connection to the

age group,” he explained. Bretz said when he was chairperson, throughout the year he would collect suggestions for

speakers from friends and colleagues, and consider scientists he heard about through newspaper articles and periodicals. In the fall, he would create a list of potential speakers,

careful not to cover one discipline or topic twice. Bretz said

his duties as Chairperson were as varied as the talks. He has

served as chauffeur — one of the speakers did not drive —

found replacements for cancellations, arranged for special

props such as a floor for the “Physics and the Dancer” talk,

juggled the schedule, and kept a “back up” speaker on-call.

Bretz’s involvement with the series has been personally

rewarding. “I’ve liked doing this because it is an opportunity

for me to talk to people I wouldn’t normally get to talk to and

to see first-hand their research,” he said, adding that the

series is also beneficial to the community. “Saturday mornings are an important time for people with families and

during each of the talks, the Auditorium is filled with

students and their families.” ●