Professor James F. Drake announced as the 2010 James Clerk Maxwell Prize recipient

The American Physical Society, recently announced it will be awarding James F. Drake from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA, the 2010 James Clerk Maxwell Prize. The purpose of the prize is to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of the properties of highly ionized gases of natural and laboratory origin.  It was established by Maxwell Laboratories, Inc. in 1975 and is currently sponsored by General Atomics.  Selection is made by a committee appointed by the President of the American Physical Society.

Professor Drake will be presented the prize on 10 November 2010 at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

The prize consists of $10,000 and a certificate bearing the following citation:

For pioneering investigations of plasma instabilities in magnetically-confined, astrophysical and laser-driven plasmas; in particular, explication of the fundamental mechanism of fast reconnection of magnetic fields in plasmas; and leadership in promoting plasma science.

Recipient profile:  Professor James F. Drake earned his B.S, degree in physics from UCLA and remained at UCLA to complete his doctorate in theoretical physics in 1975.  After completing his doctorate, Professor Drake remained at UCLA for a brief time as a post-doctoral scholar and then moved to the University of Maryland first as a post-doctoral scholar and then as a member of the teaching faculty in the Department of Physics and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology.

Professor Drake has worked on a very broad range of topics in the general area of theoretical plasma physics using both analytical and numerical techniques.  His work has applications spanning a variety of physical systems, including the solar corona, the earth's magnetosphere and ionosphere, magnetically confined plasma, and the interaction of intense lasers with plasma.  His present focus is on magnetic reconnection with space physics applications and turbulence and transport with applications to the magnetic fusion program.
 

Highlighted Physics of Plasmas papers by Professor Drake:

A saddle-node bifurcation model of magnetic reconnection onset
P. A. Cassak, M. A. Shay, and J. F. Drake
Phys. Plasmas 17, 062105 (2010)

A statistical model of magnetic islands in a current layer
A. Le, J. R. L. Fermo, J. F. Drake, and M. Swisdak
Phys. Plasmas 17, 010702 (2010)

The Hall fields and fast magnetic reconnection
J. F. Drake, M. A. Shay, and M. Swisdak
Phys. Plasmas 15, 042306 (2008)

Catastrophic onset of fast magnetic reconnection with a guide field
B. N. Rogers, S. Kobayashi, P. Ricci, W. Dorland, J. F. Drake, and T. Tatsuno
Phys. Plasmas 14, 054502 (2007)

The scaling of embedded collisionless reconnection
M. A. Shay, J. F. Drake, M. Swisdak, and B. N. Rogers
Phys. Plasmas 11, 2199 (2004)

Diamagnetic stabilization of ideal ballooning modes in the edge pedestal
B. N. Rogers and J. F. Drake
Phys. Plasmas 6, 2797 (1999)

Electron magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
D. Biskamp, E. Schwarz, A. Zeiler, A. Celani, and J. F. Drake
Phys. Plasmas 6, 751 (1999)

Nonlinear reduced Braginskii equations with ion thermal dynamics in toroidal plasma
A. Zeiler, J. F. Drake, and B. Rogers
Phys. Plasmas 4, 2134 (1997)

Two-fluid theory of collisionless magnetic reconnection
D. Biskamp, E. Schwarz, and J. F. Drake
Phys. Plasmas 4, 1002 (1997)

Three-dimensional fluid simulations of tokamak edge turbulence
A. Zeiler, D. Biskamp, J. F. Drake, and P. N. Guzdar
Phys. Plasmas 3, 2951 (1996)

Fast reconnection in high temperature plasmas
Robert G. Kleva, J. F. Drake, and F. L. Waelbroeck
Phys. Plasmas 2, 23 (1995)

Three-dimensional fluid simulations of the nonlinear drift-resistive ballooning modes in tokamak edge plasmas
P. N. Guzdar, J. F. Drake, D. McCarthy, A. B. Hassam, and C. S. Liu
Phys. Fluids 5, 3712 (1993)

Peeling of convection cells and the generation of sheared flow
J. F. Drake, J. M. Finn, P. Guzdar, V. Shapiro, V. Shevchenko, F. Waelbroeck, A. B. Hassam, C. S. Liu, and R. Sagdeev
Phys. Fluids B 4, 488 (1992)

Marfes: Radiative condensation in tokamak edge plasma
J. F. Drake
Phys. Fluids 30, 2429 (1987)

The m=1 convection cell and sawteeth in tokamaks
Richard E. Denton, J. F. Drake, and Robert G. Kleva
Phys. Fluids 30, 1448 (1987)

Nonlinear reduced fluid equations for toroidal plasmas
J. F. Drake and Thomas M. Antonsen
Phys. Fluids 27, 898 (1984)

Stabilization of the tearing mode in high‐temperature plasma
J. F. Drake, T. M. Antonsen, A. B. Hassam, and N. T. Gladd
Phys. Fluids 26, 2509 (1983)

Linear analysis of the double‐tearing mode
P. L. Pritchett, Y. C. Lee, and J. F. Drake
Phys. Fluids 23, 1368 (1980)

Electron temperature gradient driven microtearing mode
N. T. Gladd, J. F. Drake, C. L. Chang, and C. S. Liu
Phys. Fluids 23, 1182 (1980)

Lower-hybrid-drift instability in field reversed plasmas
J. D. Huba, J. F. Drake, and N. T. Gladd
Phys. Fluids 23, 552 (1980)

Kinetic theory of m=1 internal instabilities
J. F. Drake
Phys. Fluids 21, 1777 (1978)

Kinetic theory of tearing instabilities
J. F. Drake and Y. C. Lee
Phys. Fluids 20, 1341 (1977)

Parametric instabilities of electromagnetic waves in plasmas
J. F. Drake, P. K. Kaw, Y. C. Lee, G. Schmid, C. S. Liu, and Marshall N. Rosenbluth
Phys. Fluids 17, 778 (1974)