Clifford Surko

Clifford Michael Surko (born October 11, 1941 in Sacramento, California) is an American physicist,[1] whose works involve plasma physics, atomic physics, nonlinear dynamics and solid state physics.[2][3][4] Together with his colleagues, he developed techniques for laser scattering at small angles to study waves and turbulence in tokamak plasmas and invented a positron trap (buffer gas positron trap) that was used in experiments worldwide to study antimatter.[5][6] Surko also developed other techniques for studying positron plasmas[7] and examined atomic and plasma physics with positrons.[8]

Clifford Michael Surko
Born (1941-10-11) October 11, 1941
Sacramento, California
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley (B.S., Ph.D.)
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPlasma physics
InstitutionsUC San Diego
Thesis (1968)

Early life and career

Surko studied mathematics and physics at the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor's degree in 1964 and a doctorate in physics in 1968. He was then at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, where he became department head for research in semiconductor and chemical physics in 1982. Since 1988, he has been a professor at the University of California, San Diego.[9]

He was a visiting researcher at MIT (Plasma Fusion Center, 1977 to 1984), at École Polytechnique (1978/79) and at University College London.

Honors and awards

Surko is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 2014, he received the James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics for "the invention of and development of techniques to accumulate, confine, and utilize positron plasmas, and for seminal experimental studies of waves and turbulence in tokamak plasmas".[10]

References
  1. Gale Group. (2004). American men & women of science. Gale. OCLC 1082415302.
  2. Sullivan, J. P.; Marler, J. P.; Gilbert, S. J.; Buckman, S. J.; Surko, C. M. (2001). "Excitation of Electronic States of Ar, ${H}_{2}$, and ${N}_{2}$ by Positron Impact". Physical Review Letters. 87 (7): 073201. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.073201. PMID 11497889.
  3. Surko, C. M.; Reif, F. (1968). "Investigation of a New Kind of Energetic Neutral Excitation in Superfluid Helium". Physical Review. 175 (1): 229–241. doi:10.1103/PhysRev.175.229.
  4. Sullivan, James P.; Gilbert, Steven J.; Buckman, Stephen J.; Surko, Clifford M. (2001). "Search for resonances in the scattering of low-energy positrons from atoms and molecules". Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. 34 (15): L467–L474. doi:10.1088/0953-4075/34/15/102. ISSN 0953-4075.
  5. Surko, Clifford M. Gianturco, Franco A., 1938- (2002). New directions in antimatter chemistry and physics. Kluwer Academic. OCLC 839947424.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Surko, Clifford M. (2007). "Atomic physics: A whiff of antimatter soup". Nature. 449 (7159): 153–156. doi:10.1038/449153a. PMID 17851505.
  7. Surko, C. M.; Leventhal, M.; Passner, A.; Wysocki, F. J. (1988). "A positron plasma in the laboratory—how and why". AIP Conference Proceedings. 175 (1): 75–90. doi:10.1063/1.37614. ISSN 0094-243X.
  8. Gribakin, G. F.; Young, J. A.; Surko, C. M. (2010). "Positron-molecule interactions: Resonant attachment, annihilation, and bound states" (PDF). Reviews of Modern Physics. 82 (3): 2557–2607. doi:10.1103/revmodphys.82.2557. ISSN 0034-6861.
  9. "UC San Diego | Faculty Profile". www-physics.ucsd.edu. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
  10. "2014 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics Recipient". American Physical Society. Retrieved February 28, 2020.

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