Prof. Chan Joshi awarded IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science’s 2017 Technical Field Award

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has announced that the 2017 Marie Sklodowska–Curie Award for outstanding contributions to the field of Nuclear and Plasma Sciences and Engineering has been bestowed on Professor Chandrashekhar (Chan) Joshi of University of California Los Angeles. The citation for this award reads “For groundbreaking contributions to and leadership in the field of plasma particle accelerators.”

Professor Joshi is currently a Distinguished Chancellor’s Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at UCLA and the Director of the Fast Track to Success and Honors Program. His research is in the fields of plasma physics, lasers and electromagnetics. In particular, Professor Joshi has interests in the areas of laser fusion, laser acceleration of particles, nonlinear optics of plasmas, high-power lasers and particle beams, and basic plasma phenomena. Professor Joshi has made many fundamental contributions to our understanding of extremely nonlinear optical effects in plasmas. Most notable are his first experimental demonstrations in plasmas of four-wave mixing, stimulated Raman forward instability, stimulated Compton scattering, resonant self-focusing, quasi-resonant modes, frequency up shifting by ionization fronts and nonlinear coupling between electron-plasma waves. His research group is best known for work in the field of ultra-high gradient acceleration of charged particles using space charge density waves in plasmas using a laser or a particle beam pulse. Such wakes are being considered as accelerating structures for next generation of particle colliders and compact light sources to make these critical instruments of scientific discovery compact and affordable. Work started by Professor Joshi in the 1980s at UCLA has now spread worldwide; yet after three decades Professor Joshi’s group continues to make breakthrough contributions to this grand challenge in engineering.

Professor Joshi has now been awarded two of the most prestigious awards by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the American Physical Society (APS) – the IEEE Marie Sklodowska Curie Award (2017) and the APS-Maxwell Prize (2006). He is also the recipient of the Advanced Accelerator Concepts Prize (2008), the IEEE-Particle Accelerator Science and Technology Award (2009), APS- Excellence in Plasma Physics Award (1996) and USPAS prize for Achievement in Accelerator Physics and Technology (1997). He was the APS’ Centennial Speaker (1999) and a Distinguished Lecturer in Plasma Physics (2001). Prof. Joshi is a Fellow of the APS, IEEE and IoP(U.K.). Professor Joshi has published more than 450 scientific papers and trained a generation of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. He was awarded the Distinguished Engineering Educator Award by the Engineers’ Council (2014) and elected member of the National Academy of Engineering (2014).

The selection committee for the 2017 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award recommended Professor Joshi to the IEEE Awards Board. Each year the IEEE Awards Board recommends a select group of recipients to receive IEEE’s most prestigious honors. For nearly a century, the IEEE Awards program has paid tribute to technical professionals whose exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions have made a lasting impact on technology, society and the engineering profession. The Marie Sklodowska Curie Award will be presented to Professor Joshi at the International Conference on Plasma Physics 2017 in Atlantic City in May 2017.