IOP Groups

Culham Thesis Prize

Terms of reference

The prize will be awarded annually to the candidate who has displayed excellence in the execution of the scientific method as witnessed by the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Plasma science from a UK or Irish university. The thesis content should exhibit significant new work and originality, clearly driven by the nominee, be well explained and demonstrate a good understanding of the subject. The prize consists of £500 in cash plus an expenses paid trip to the annual IOP plasma physics conference, where the recipient will be asked to give an invited talk. The prize is sponsored by UKAEA and jointly coordinated by UKAEA and the IOP Plasma Physics Group.

Eligibility

• The thesis must have been submitted in the last two calendar years leading up to the nomination deadline.
• The prize can go to a non-member of the Institute of Physics
• Non UK/Irish nationals are eligible but the PhD award must have been made at an Irish/UK university
• In the event that no candidate satisfies the criteria for the prize, the prize will lapse
• Unsuccessful theses can be re-submitted as long as a the Plasma Physics Group secretary has received a message to that effect from the supervisor
• Nominees are encouraged to propose only the highest quality pieces of work, with one nomination per nominee, noting there are no runner-up places for this prize.

Details of submission and nomination

Previous recipients

2009
Dr Ben Dudson, University of Oxford
For his thesis “Edge turbulence in the Mega-Amp spherical tokamak” dealing with the collection of data on edge turbulence and its analysis using novel statistical methods. These results were compared to computational simulations using BOUT, an edge turbulence code originating with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to which Dr Dudson contributed important improvements. He has made an important contribution to the understanding of edge turbulence, a topic of great importance to the understanding of tokamaks and the development of tokamak reactors, carrying out work of a depth and originality which the Prize judges found very impressive.

2008
Dr Louise Willingale, Imperial College London
For significant experimental and numerical work on the acceleration of ions to high energies by laser-plasma interaction.

2007
Dr Phil Nilson, Imperial College London
For Measurements of the Dynamics of Laser and Soft X-Ray Heated Targets by XUV and Optical Probing.

2006
Dr Stuart P D Mangles, Imperial College London
For measurements of relativistic electrons from intense laser-plasma interactions.

2005
Dr Barney Walton, Imperial College London
For novel experimental investigations of beat-wave acceleration as intense electromagnetic fields interact with material in a plasma state.

2004
Dr Andrea Ciardi, Imperial College London
For laboratory investigation and modelling of hypersonic jets in wire array Z-pinch experiments.

2003
Dr Roderick Kennedy, University of Oxford
For innovative research on the application of probe theory to dust particles immersed in plasma.

2002
Dr Eugene Clark, Imperial College London
For ground breaking research on proton and ion acceleration in ultra intense laser plasma interactions.

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