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Date: October 15, 1996
Director of Plasma Physics Laboratory Will Return to Full-time Research and Teaching
PRINCETON, N.J., October 15, 1996 -- Ronald C. Davidson, a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University who has served as director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) since 1991, has decided to step down as director of the lab effective January 1, 1997, to return to research and teaching on a full-time basis.
Princeton University Provost Jeremiah Ostriker, also a professor of astrophysical sciences and a former chair of that department, and Professor of Physics William Happer, chair of the University Research Board, will lead the search process for a new director. The process will begin as soon as possible and will include members of the faculty and representatives of PPPL.
"Ron Davidson has provided exceptional leadership for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and for the national fusion effort over these past six years," said Princeton University President Harold T. Shapiro. "Despite significant federal budgetary constraints, he has led PPPL through a period of unprecedented scientific productivity as well as significant change and planning for the future, and he has helped the national fusion effort to reach a number of important scientific and technological milestones.
"In addition to providing strong management for the laboratory's research programs, he has strengthened the lab's graduate and postdoctoral programs and has enhanced its educational programs for schoolchildren and members of the general public. He has also provided sensitive and compassionate leadership as the lab has been required to reduce the size of its staff over recent years. We are very grateful to him for his outstanding service as director of the lab, and we are delighted that he will be remaining as a member of the Princeton faculty.
"PPPL has a highly talented and dedicated workforce," Shapiro added, "and I am confident that the lab will continue its long tradition as the nation's leading center of excellence for fusion science and plasma physics for many years to come."
Davidson said, "My decision to step down as director is a consequence of a strong personal desire to return to research and teaching on a full-time basis, and in no way represents any lack of enthusiasm for the significant opportunities and challenges facing the lab and the national fusion effort."
As a member of the faculty, Davidson hopes to strengthen further the academic ties between the main campus and PPPL, building on the excellent graduate programs in plasma physics (through the Department of Astrophysical Sciences) and in plasma science and technology (through the School of Engineering and Applied Science).
PPPL's fourth director, Davidson received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 1966. He returned to Princeton in 1991 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was a professor of physics and had directed that institution's Plasma Fusion Center. Before joining MIT's faculty, Davidson worked at the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy, and while at MIT he was the first chair of DOE's Magnetic Fusion Advisory Committee. A world authority on the physics of nonneutral plasmas and nonlinear plasma processes, Davidson was the 1993 recipient of the Kaul Foundation Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics.
Fusion research at PPPL is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.