The Current Status and Future Direction of High-Magnetic-Field Science and Technology in the United States (2024)
Chapter: Appendix D: Committee Member Biographical Information
D
Committee Member Biographical Information
PETER B. LITTLEWOOD, Chair, is a professor of physics at the University of Chicago. He was previously the director of Argonne National Laboratory, and before that a professor of physics at the University of Cambridge and the head of the Cavendish Laboratory. He is the founding executive chair of the Faraday Institution, the United Kingdom’s independent center for electrochemical energy storage science and technology, supporting research, training, and analysis. He began his career with almost 20 years at Bell Laboratories, ultimately serving for 5 years as the head of theoretical physics research. His research interests include superconductivity and superfluids, strongly correlated electronic materials, collective dynamics of glasses, density waves in solids, neuroscience, and applications of materials for energy and sustainability. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of London, the Institute of Physics, the American Physical Society (APS), and the World Academy of Sciences. He serves on the advisory boards of research and education institutions and other scientific organizations worldwide. He holds a bachelor’s degree in natural sciences (physics) and a doctorate in physics, both from the University of Cambridge.
KATHLEEN MELANIE AMM (resigned from the committee on 3/14/2024) is the director of the Magnet Division at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where she leads a world class team of more than 40 cross-functional scientists, engineers, and technicians developing the future of superconducting magnet technology, with application to accelerators, science, fusion, and other industrial applications of superconductivity. Her team participates in projects on the cutting edge of
magnet development, which include the accelerator upgrade project, development of magnets for the electron ion collider, and the magnet development project. Prior to that, Amm was at GE’s Global Research Center for 20 years where she held increasing roles of responsibility in the magnetic resonance and superconducting magnet space, including directing the research portfolio for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research at GE Global Research. She is recognized as a leader in the superconducting magnet community and has served on numerous superconducting and cryogenic conference boards, including being the president of the Applied Superconductivity Conference, the largest conference in superconductivity. She is a member of the advisory committee for the IEEE Council on Superconductivity, where she has served in numerous roles including as the council’s representative for the IEEE Women in Engineering Board. She has more than 22 patents, several book chapters, and more than 50 publications.
DIEGO ARBELAEZ is a staff scientist and engineer at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). He received his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of California (UC), Berkeley, in 2008. He has been working at LBNL since the completion of his PhD. His work at LBNL focuses on the development of novel magnet technologies for high-energy physics and basic energy science applications. His past and current work at LBNL included the development of novel high-field superconducting dipole magnet technologies, superconducting magnets for ECR ion sources, and superconducting and permanent magnet undulators. Currently, he is the LBNL area leader for the Nb3Sn magnet area within the U.S. Magnet Development Program as well as the lead engineer for the design and fabrication of a 15 T, Nb3Sn, large aperture dipole for a high-field cable test facility that is being constructed at Fermilab. He also leads the team at LBNL that is responsible for delivering the upgraded undulators for the LCLS-II High Energy upgrade project at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
SATOSHI AWAJI is a professor and the director at the High Field Laboratory for Superconducting Materials (HFLSM), Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University. He is an experimental scientist working on superconducting materials research and high-field magnet development using his experience in the physics of superconducting materials and the technology of high-field superconducting magnets. His specialty areas of expertise are critical currents of practical superconducting wires and tapes and cryogen-free superconducting magnets with high-temperature superconductors and Nb3Sn. He is mostly involved in understanding the flux pinning mechanism of practical superconducting materials and in developing the high-field cryogen-free superconducting magnets, as well as managing the user program of HFLSM. He was awarded the 10th (2006) and 21st (2017)
Superconductivity Science and Technology Award. He is currently a board member of the Applied Superconductivity Educational Foundation (ASEF) and of the Cryogenics and Superconductivity Society, Japan.
AMBER YAELSYLVIA BALAZS is an associate director of analytical, structural, and chromatography sciences in oncology research and development (R&D) chemistry at AstraZeneca’s Boston R&D site. In 2016, she joined AstraZeneca as a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) specialist (senior scientist), following a visiting scientist opportunity with Professor James Chou at Harvard Medical School. Previously she was at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, where she had been a PhD NMR laboratory head since 2001. Her primary NMR responsibilities are small molecule conformational analysis for drug discovery and mentoring others. Balazs is on the board of directors and scientific organizing committee for the Practical Applications of NMR in Industry Conference. She holds American Chemical Society (ACS) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) memberships. She has a steady record of internally recognized awards. During her undergraduate chemistry studies, she began laboratory work assaying acetylcholine receptors. Balazs moved from California to Massachusetts to do a direct PhD under the guidance of Professor Lynmarie Thompson, investigating site-directed, solid-state NMR distance measurements to test mechanisms of transmembrane signaling in bacterial chemotaxis receptors. In her postdoctoral studies with Professor Shimon Vega at the Weizmann Institute, Balazs’s research included peptides studies with solids NMR. High-resolution NMR training from a solids background came from on-the-job experiences, formal course work, extensive reading, and a National Institutes of Health (NIH) workshop.
ANNA MARIE LEESE DE ESCOBAR retired from federal service as the Navy’s Distinguished Scientist for Cryogenic Electronics, Senior Science and Technology Manager in 2022. She has 34 years of experimental physics research in cryogenic electronics and superconductor materials fabrication and devices for electromagnetic systems leading to the founding of the Cryogenic Exploitation of Radio Frequency (CERF) Laboratory at Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific. She led multiple cross-disciplinary and cross-organizational efforts in development engineering resulting in more than two technology transitions into fleet inventory. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), a senior member of IEEE, a recipient of the Lauritsen-Bennett Award for Excellence in Science, and serves on several professional boards and committees, including the NAI, ASEF, and the U.S. Committee for Superconductor Electronics. She received a BS in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1988 and is a member of Sigma Pi Sigma.
EDWIN FOHTUNG is an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytech Institute (RPI). He received his PhD in materials physics from the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 2010. He received his BSc (2005) and MSc (2007) in technical and applied physics from the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, Russia, and was a postdoctoral fellow with the physics department at the University of California, San Diego. Before joining RPI, he was the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center professor of physics at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Since then, he has published numerous research papers in leading scientific journals and has received several grants for his work on neutron science and X-ray physics with synchrotrons and free electron lasers. He has also been invited to give lectures and keynote speeches at conferences around the world. Fohtung is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Rosen Fellowship at LANL and the international excellence fellowship award from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In addition to his work as a professor, Fohtung is a dedicated mentor to his students and postdocs and serves as panel member for numerous grant agencies and national facilities. He is a member of APS and the Materials Research Society.
PETRA FROMME is a regents professor and the Paul V. Galvin Professor at the School of Molecular Sciences and holds the position of director of the Biodesign Institute of Applied Structural Discovery at Arizona State University (ASU). Her research is focused on the structure and dynamics of biomolecules, which are investigated with a combination of different techniques including X-ray crystallography, NMR, cryo-electron microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy, optical spectroscopy, and electron paramagnetic resonance. She and her collaborators have pioneered the method of serial femtosecond crystallography with X-ray free electron lasers, enabling time-resolved studies of biomolecules at room temperature in real time with femtosecond time resolution. She is also engaged in the development of compact X-ray free electron lasers at ASU and at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Germany. She has been awarded the Lemberg Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science, the Biologie 2001 Award of the Academy of Science of Göttingen, the Robin Hill Award of the International Photosynthesis Society, and the Afinsen Award of the Protein Society. She is member of the Society for Biological Chemistry, the International Society of Photosynthesis Research, the Biophysical Society, and ACS. She received her MS (Diplom) in biochemistry from the Free University of Berlin and her PhD in chemistry and habilitation in physical chemistry from the Technical University Berlin.
LUCIO FRYDMAN is a professor and the head for the Department of Chemical and Biological Physics at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences in Israel. He is also the director of the Clore Institute ultrahigh-field NMR, Weizmann Institute of Sciences, and the director of the Fritz Haber Center for Experimental Physical
Chemistry at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences. Frydman earned a BSc and a PhD at the University of Buenos Aires. After postdoctoral studies at UC Berkeley, he joined the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he became full professor in 1999. In 2001, he joined the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Chemical Physics, which he currently heads. Frydman’s research focuses on magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and imaging (MRI), techniques that enable researchers to characterize molecular structure and behavior with unprecedented precision and shed new light on phenomena governing a wide range of biological, chemical, and physical processes. Among Frydman’s awards are the Dreyfus, Sloan, Beckman, and U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER fellowships. He was also the recipient of the Laukien and Varian awards, a European ERC Advanced Grant, the Outstanding Immigrant Prize from Israel’s Ministries of Science and Absorption, and the Richard R. Ernst Prize in Magnetic Resonance. Frydman has chaired leading scientific conferences including the 50th Experimental NMR Conference and the EuroMAR Organization and has advised more than 50 graduate students and postdocs. He is a fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance (ISMAR) and of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and for a decade served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Magnetic Resonance.
EFIM GLUSKIN is an Argonne Distinguished Fellow at Argonne National Laboratory. During his more than three decades at Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS), Efim has held several executive and leadership positions. Prior to his APS tenure, he was the group leader and senior scientist at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, Russia, where he pioneered the development of light sources and synchrotron radiation research in Russia. Soon after joining APS in 1990, Efim became the group leader at the Experimental Facilities Division and took responsibility for the design and construction of undulators—the main sources of radiation—at the United States’ newly constructed premier synchrotron radiation facility. Under his guidance, APS not only met all the requirements of the country’s most advanced X-ray source but also developed world-recognized expertise in this field. From 1999–2004, Gluskin led the Experimental Facilities Division and from 2004–2009 he led the Accelerator Facilities Division. Such experience is quite unique: it provided in-depth knowledge of the X-ray source itself as well as the experimental capabilities and potential of the APS facility. In the early 2000s expertise in undulators was in great demand for the emerging free electron laser (FEL) field. Under Gluskin’s leadership, a team of APS physicists and engineers joined the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) project at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, where they assumed responsibility for the design and construction of more than 30 novel undulators. These unique devices were at the heart of the remarkable success of the world’s first XFEL, the LCLS-1 project. In 2015, the
APS team, again led by Gluskin, developed the next-generation undulators that are currently in use at the LCLS-II FEL facility. In 2012 he initiated the development of superconducting undulators (SCUs) at APS. These devices represent the forefront and the future of undulator development; the APS team is the world leader in this field. Gluskin has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, co-authored 3 books, holds 3 U.S. patents, and has given more than 80 invited talks. He is a fellow of both APS and AAAS. He serves on the International Advisory Committees for the Photon Factory in Japan and the Pohang Accelerator Laboratory in South Korea. He received an MS in physics from Novosibirsk University in 1968 and a PhD in physics from the Siberian Division of the USSR Academy of Sciences in 1974.
SOPHIA EUGENIE HAYES is a professor of chemistry at Washington University, and she currently serves as the vice dean for graduate education in arts and sciences. She specializes in solid-state NMR and materials science, especially low-temperature NMR (at cryogenic temperatures) and high-field studies of inorganic species. Her group develops methods and instrumentation for optically pumped NMR, combining laser excitation and NMR detection. She is an AAAS fellow, Sloan Foundation fellow, and an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral fellow. Hayes earned her BS in chemistry from UC Berkeley and her PhD in chemistry from UC Santa Barbara, with postdoctoral training collaboratively working between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and UC Berkeley (chemical engineering). She also had postdoctoral training at Technical University of Dortmund, Germany, in experimental physics.
VALERIA LAUTER is a distinguished R&D staff scientist in the Neutron Scattering Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Prior to taking on her position at ORNL in 2008, she held positions of research scientist at the Technical University of Munich and the University of Konstanz, Germany, and was a visiting fellow at the Laue Langevin Institute in Grenoble, France. Her research interests include low-dimensional magnetic systems and thin film heterostructures, including topological insulator heterostructures, oxide heterostructures, superconductors, magnetic nanocomposites and soft matter nanocomposites, and development and application of advanced neutron scattering techniques. As the lead instrument scientist at the magnetism reflectometer (MR) at the Spallation Neutron Source, she established MR as a state-of-the-art instrument and enabled new directions in neutron scattering research engaging a diverse user community, enabling unique in operando experiments combining polarized neutron reflectometry with in situ ferromagnetic resonance setup, or with in situ laser photoexcitation. Lauter is a fellow of the American Neutron Scattering Society and the chair of the Magnetic Interfaces and Nanostructures Division of American Vacuum Society. She is the recipient of the
Award for Excellence in Beam Line Science from SNS and HFIR user community and several supplemental performance and significant event awards at ORNL. She received her PhD in experimental and theoretical solid-state physics at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna and an MSc in solid state physics and quantum electronics at the Moscow Physics and Engineering Institute. Lauter served as a reviewer for the Office of Basic Energy Sciences within the Department of Energy; as a member of the Distinguished Fellowship Committee at ORNL and the Seed Review Committee within the Laboratory Directed Research & Development Program; an external expert for The National Research, Development and Innovation Office, Hungary; and an external expert of the review board for promotion for Department of Physics and Astronomy of Uppsala University, Sweden.
CHARLES (CHUCK) H. MIELKE is the division director of the Dynamic Experiments (M) division at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The M division is home to all of LANL’s large-scale, high-explosive (HE) experimental capabilities and large-scale HE manufacturing for support of research and development of advanced national defense systems. Mielke was the former division director of the Integrated Weapons Experiments (J) division, which is known for the DARHT capability at LANL and execution of sub-critical experiments at the Nevada National Security Site. Prior to J Division, Mielke was the director of the NHMFL-PFF at LANL for 9 years. He has published more than 160 research papers in high-magnetic-field science and condensed matter physics research and is an expert in pulsed power methods and generation of extremely high magnetic fields. Mielke earned his PhD from Clark University where he studied organic molecular based superconductivity and constructed pulsed magnetic field apparatus and developed low-temperature physics methods for pulsed magnetic fields. As the NHMFL-PFF director, Mielke contributed a presentation as part of the NRC 2013 report High Magnetic Field Science and Its Applications in the United States: Current Status and Future Directions.
PETER B. ROEMER retired from GE Healthcare in 2020 as a chief engineer in MRI and continues work as a consultant. During his nearly 40-year career, he developed key MRI technology improvements that are in widespread use today and he oversaw the development of multiple new MRI systems. As the co-founder of ONI Medical Systems, he led the development of a dedicated extremity MRI, helping to reduce the cost of health care. He is a fellow of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, and a Gold Medal recipient, the highest award given by the society. In 2014, his paper “The NMR Phased Array” was voted by his peers as one of the 30 most influential of all MRM papers over the prior 30 years. In 2021, he was inducted into National Academy of Engineering. In the mid-1990s, he was a member of external advisory board for the then newly formed National High Field
Magnet Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. Roemer received an undergraduate degree in electrical and computer science and a PhD in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where his doctoral dissertation related to optimization of magnetic fields topologies in Stellarator fusion reactors.
ROBERT TYCKO is a distinguished investigator in the Laboratory of Chemical Physics, which is a biophysics and biophysical chemistry research department within the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a component of NIH. His expertise is primarily in magnetic resonance spectroscopy and its applications to problems in biophysics, structural biology, physical chemistry, and materials science. His research focuses on solid state NMR methods and their use in structural studies of protein assemblies. His research also includes efforts in high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging and electron microscopy. Tycko was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2020. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, APS, ISMAR, and AAAS. Awards include the Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award from the Alzheimer’s Association (2018), the Christian B. Anfinsen Award from the Protein Society (2014), and the Earle K. Plyler Prize from the APS (2005). Tycko received his AB from Princeton University in 1980 and his PhD in chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1984. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania in 1984–1986 and was a member of the technical staff in the Physical Chemistry and Materials Chemistry Research Departments of AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1986–1994. Tycko served on the National Academies’ Committee on Opportunities in High Magnetic Field Science in 2003 and the Committee to Assess the Current Status and Future Direction of High Magnetic Field Science in the United States in 2013.
NAI-CHANG YEH is currently the Thomas W. Hogan Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). From 2013 to 2019, she served as the Fletcher Jones Foundation co-director of the Kavli Nanoscience Institute at Caltech. Her principal research field is experimental condensed matter physics, with special emphasis on quantum materials, quantum devices, quantum science, nanoscience, and nanotechnology. Yeh is an elected fellow of APS, AAAS, and the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom. Some of her other professional honors include Highlight Yushan Scholar, Ministry of Education, Taiwan; Achievement Award, Tsien Excellence in Education Program, Tsinghua University, China; Wu Chien-Shiung Distinguished Lectureship Award, National Central University and Wu Chien-Shiung Foundation, Taiwan; Faculty Achievement Award, Southern California Chinese-American Faculty Association, United States; Outstanding Young Researcher Award, International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers; Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, United States; and
Sloan Research Fellowship, United States. Yeh received her BSc from National Taiwan University (1983) and her PhD in physics from MIT (1988). She was a visiting scientist at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center from 1988 to 1989 and joined the physics faculty of Caltech in 1989.
YUHU ZHAI is a principal engineer at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). Since 2018 he has held an engineering management leadership role in the more than $200 million Recovery Project for PPPL’s flagship fusion experimental device National Spherical Torus eXperiment Upgrade (NSTX-U). Previously, he established the superconducting magnet laboratory and broadened national and International collaboration as part of PPPL’s R&D strategic planning on high-temperature superconducting magnets for fusion. He was also the principal investigator for innovation on high-performance superconducting coil development for fusion. This effort spanned the range from prototype coil fabrication to the cryogenic testing of prototype coils and the development of a quench protection system and novel fusion conductor. He has also been the chief engineering analyst for the design of ITER Diagnostic First Walls and U.S. ITER Diagnostic Port Plugs and lead engineering analyst for lower ELM coils in the final design phase of ITER in vessel coils. He received the Tiger Award from Princeton University in 2022.
