Davidson recognized for contributions to beam physics

Ronald Davidson, a researcher at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, has been selected to receive the Particle Accelerator Science and Technology Award for 2005. He will be honored on May 18 during the biennial Particle Accelerator Conference in Knoxville, Tenn.

The award, which recognizes Davidson for his important contributions to beam physics, is sponsored by a committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society. It includes a plaque and $2,000.

Davidson is deputy head of the theory department and head of the beam dynamics and nonneutral plasma division at the PPPL. He also is a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton and the deputy director of the Virtual National Laboratory for Heavy Ion Fusion, a collaborative effort between the PPPL, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

He earned his Ph.D. in plasma physics from Princeton in 1966 and joined the PPPL in 1991, serving as director of the lab until 1997.

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