List of plasma physicists
- Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov
- Hannes Alfvén - received the only Nobel Prize specifically for contributions to plasma physics.
- Willard Harrison Bennett - Z-pinch is a form of "Bennett pinch". Also invented radio frequency mass spectrometry.
- Kristian Birkeland - first suggested that polar electric currents (or auroral electrojets) are connected to a system of filaments (now called "Birkeland currents") that flow along geomagnetic field lines into and away from the polar region.
- David Bohm - derived the Bohm sheath criterion, which states that a plasma must flow with at least the speed of sound toward a solid surface
- Fran Bosnjakovic
- Oscar Buneman - pioneer of computational plasma physics and plasma simulation.
- C. A. Cattell - pioneering observations of electrostatic solitary waves and the discovery of large amplitude whistler (radio) waves in the terrestrial radiation belts. She is also part of the Physics Force team at the University of Minnesota.
- F. F. Chen
- Liu Chen
- William Crookes
- Ronald C. Davidson, first director MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center
- Peter Debye - Nobel Prize–winning physicist and chemist, after whom Debye shielding and Debye length are named
- Philo Farnsworth - credited with the invention of the cathode ray tube, television and Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor
- Harold Furth
- Vitaly Ginzburg
- Russell Alan Hulse
- Ratko Janev
- Predhiman Kaw
- Vipin Kumar Tripathi
- P. J. Kellogg - predicted the existence of the terrestrial bow shock in 1962. Some of the first theoretical work on solitary wave and the two steam instability in 1964 and 1965. He also did some of the first work on time-of-flight mechanisms relating to electron beams and Langmuir waves in the terrestrial foreshock. More recent work has focused on the interaction of large amplitude whistler (radio) waves and electrons in the radiation belts.
- Shaukat Hameed Khan
- Lev Davidovich Landau
- Irving Langmuir - developed electron temperature concepts and an electrostatic probe, the Langmuir probe. Coined the term "plasma" to hint at the lifelike behavior of this state of matter.
- Eric Lerner - pioneer of focus fusion and advocate of plasma cosmology
- Mounir Laroussi
- R. L. Lysak - pioneering work on Alfvén waves and kinetic Alfven waves in the auroral acceleration region.
- Allan H. Merchant - spectral properties of the Baslescu-Lenard Equation
- Ernst Messerschmid
- Forrest S. Mozer - electric field measurements in space plasma
- Ghulam Murtaza
- Chang Hee Nam
- Friedrich Paschen - known for his law on breakdown voltage
- Anthony Peratt - electrical engineer and plasma physicist and advocate of plasma cosmology
- Marshall Rosenbluth
- Dr. J. Reece Roth - inventor of atmospheric plasma technologies.
- Megh Nad Saha - Saha equation
- Andrey Dmitriyevich Sakharov - proposed the development of the tokamak device for use in controlled thermonuclear fusion.
- Rudolf Seeliger
- Lyman Spitzer
- Johannes Stark
- Igor Tamm
- Nikola Tesla - inventor, physicist, mechanical and electrical engineer
- Lewi Tonks
- Anatoly Vlasov - first suggested the Vlasov equation for a correct description of plasma with long-range interaction between particles
- J. R. Wygant - electric field measurements in space plasmas
- Franklin Chang-Diaz - created the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket(VASIMR) concept, an electromagnetic thruster for spacecraft propulsion.
See also
Relevant Spacecraft
- Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), launched 1997, still operational.
- Helios (spacecraft)
- MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging), launched 2004, still operational.
- Radiation Belt Storm Probes
- Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), launched 2010, still operational.
- Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), launched 1995, still operational.
- Solar Maximum Mission (SMM), launched 1980, decommissioned 1989.
- Solar Orbiter (SOLO), set to launch in 2015.
- Solar Probe Plus, set to launch in 2015.
- STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory), launched 2006, still operational.
- Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (TRACE), launched 1998, decommissioned 2010.
- Ulysses (spacecraft), launched 1990, decommissioned 2009.
- WIND (spacecraft), launched 1994, still operational.
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