Essay: Robert H. Siemann and plasma wakefield acceleration at SLAC

Tom Katsouleas^*
Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA

^*Thomas C. Katsouleas, Ph. D., became dean of Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, in July 2008. He also serves as Professor of Electrical and Computing Engineering. A specialist in the use of plasmas as novel particle accelerators and light sources, Katsouleas had served on the faculty of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering since 1991. He joined the USC faculty as an associate professor of electrical engineering and rose steadily through the academic ranks, becoming full professor in 1997. Before joining USC, he served for seven years on the faculty of UCLA, after having earned a Ph. D. in physics and B.S. (summa cum laude) in physics, both from UCLA. As an expert in high-performance computing, Katsouleas’ primary research focus is applying plasma physics to improve and miniaturize particle accelerators. He is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He serves as associate editor of the journal IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, and his work has been featured on the covers of Physical Review Letters, Scientific American, the CERN Courier, and Nature.