The Nuclear Fusion Prize
The Nuclear Fusion prize is awarded annually to recognise outstanding work published in the journal.
Each year, a shortlist of ten papers is nominated for the Nuclear Fusion prize. These are papers of the highest scientific standard, published in the journal volume from two years previous to the award year. Nominations are based on citation record and recommendation by the Board of Editors. The Board then votes by secret ballot to determine which of these papers has made the largest scientific impact.
Visit the journal website at http://www.iop.org/journals/nf for more information on Nuclear Fusion and on how to publish in the journal.
The 2009 and 2010 Nuclear Fusion Journal prize
Left-hand photo: John E Rice (centre), MIT, the Winner of the 2010 Nuclear Fusion journal Award receives the award certificate and trophy from the Chair of the Board of Editors of Nuclear Fusion, Mitsuru Kikuchi (left), Japan Atomic Energy Agency and Werner Burkart (right), Deputy Director General, IAEA
Right-hand photo: Steven Sabbagh, Columbia University / PPPL (centre), the Winner of the 2009 Nuclear Fusion journal Award receives the award certificate and trophy from the Chair of the Board of Editors of Nuclear Fusion, Mitsuru Kikuchi (left), Japan Atomic Energy Agency and Werner Burkart (right), Deputy Director General, IAEA
During the 2010 Fusion Energy Conference, held in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, the Nuclear Fusion Prize was presented to the 2009 and 2010 winners on 11 October 2010.
The Prize Winner for 2009 winner is Steve Sabbagh from the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York. He received the award as the lead author of a landmark paper which reports record parameters of beta in a large spherical torus plasma and presents a thorough investigation of the physics of Resistive Wall Mode (RWM) instability. Resistive wall stabilized operation in rotating high beta NSTX plasmas (Nucl. Fusion 46 635-644). The paper makes a significant contribution to the critical topic of RWM stabilization.
The recipient of the 2010 award is John Rice, Principal Research Scientist, on the Alcator Project at MITs Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Cambridge, as the lead author of a seminal paper that analyzes results across a range of machines in order to develop a universal scaling that can be used to predict intrinsic rotation. Inter-machine comparison of intrinsic toroidal rotation in tokamaks (Nucl. Fusion 47 1618-1624). The timeliness of this paper is the anticipated applicability of this scaling to ITER.
For more information on the journal and the Nuclear Fusion prize please go to the journal web site
http://iopscience.iop.org/0029-5515
The 2008 Nuclear Fusion Journal prize
The 2008 prize was presented at the 2008 Fusion Energy Conference in Geneva, Switzerland to Todd Evans for the paper ‘Suppression of large edge localized modes with edge resonant magnetic fields in high confinement DIII-D plasmas’ (Nucl Fusion 45 595-607). This is a landmark experimental paper demonstrating the efficacy of using resonant magnetic field perturbations (RMPs) for the suppression of large amplitude edge localized modes (Type I ELMs); a critical issue for ITER and other reactor grade machines because of the erosion of the divertor target that would occur if ELMs are not controlled. This demonstration of ELM suppression without a reduction in H-mode global confinement performance has stimulated much subsequent work in the field, both experimental and theoretical, and encouraged the proposal that a similar RMP coil set be included in the design for ITER. The experiment was based on the expectation that ergodization of the edge magnetic fields could reduce the pressure gradient that drives MHD instability to trigger ELMs. The paper examined the extent to which this is borne out by experiment and raised plasma physics issues which are currently subject to intense examination.
Dr. Evans receiving the award from Professor W. Burkart (Deputy Director General, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA), and Dr. M. Kikuchi (Chairman of Nuclear Fusion's Board of Editors) at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference
The 2007 Nuclear Fusion journal prize
The 2007 prize was presented at the 2008 Fusion Energy Conference in Geneva, Switzerland to Clemente Angioni for the paper ‘Density response to central electron heating: theoretical investigations and experimental observations in ASDEX Upgrade’ (Nucl Fusion 44 827-845). The dependence of density profile on plasma parameters is a key area of research with implications for fusion performance in ITER and the understanding of turbulent transport in high temperature plasmas. The paper deals with the long-existing issue of density flattening, or density pump-out, with central electron heating and presents a superb combination of theory, modelling and experimental observation.
Dr. Angioni receiving the award from Professor W. Burkart (Deputy Director General, Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA), and Dr. M. Kikuchi (Chairman of Nuclear Fusion's Board of Editors) at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference
The inaugural Nuclear Fusion journal prize 2006
The inaugural Nuclear Fusion prize was presented at the 2006 Fusion Energy Conference in Chengdu, China for a paper that demonstrates how one of primary physics goals of ITER might be more safely realized.
Lead author TC Luce, was awarded the prestigious prize for the paper ‘Stationary high-performance discharges in the DIII-D tokamak’ (Nucl Fusion 43 321 - 329). The paper outlines a tokamak scenario that can maintain high fusion performance at reduced plasma current (compared with the conventional tokamak operational scenario), thereby lessening the potential for structural damage in the event of a major disruption. Projections in the paper show that realization of this scenario in ITER could lead to fusion performance at or above an energy gain of 10 for longer duration with reduced risk.
Dr. Luce receiving the award from Professor W. Burkart (Deputy Director General,
Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA), and Dr. M. Kikuchi (Chairman of Nuclear Fusion's Board of Editors) at the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference.