Prager named director of Plasma Physics Lab

The University has chosen University of Wisconsin physicist Stewart Prager to replace Robert Goldston GS ’77 as director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). Goldston, who announced his decision to resign last December, will step down this fall after more than 10 years as director.

“In Stewart Prager we have recruited the very best person to lead PPPL,” Dean for Research A.J. Stewart Smith GS ’66 said in a statement on the University website. “Not only does he bring superb scientific credentials, but also proven experience in management, and an outstanding record on the national fusion scene.”

Prager, who is currently director of the Madison Symmetric Torus experiment and a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin, specializes in fusion energy research. He has gained international acclaim through his experiments on future reactors and the properties of plasmas.

He has also contributed to the physics community through his participation on various panels and advisory committees, including the DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, the University Fusion Association and the fusion review panel of President Clinton’s Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology.

Prager earned bachelor’s degrees from Queens College in New York and Columbia University and a Ph.D. in plasma physics from Columbia. He is expected to be appointed a professor in the astrophysical sciences department this fall.

“Stewart Prager is not only a superb scientist, but also a proven leader of the nation’s fusion research community,” Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83 said in the statement. “All of us at Princeton are absolutely delighted that Dr. Prager has agreed to take the helm at the laboratory.”

A time of change at PPPL

Prager’s appointment comes during a transitional period for PPPL. The management contract for PPPL, which the University has held since the lab’s inception in 1951, expires Sept. 30 and will be open to competitive bidding. PPPL is one of 10 national science laboratories funded by the DOE’s Office of Science.

In May, the DOE stopped funding the National Compact Stellarator Experiment at PPPL after determining that the project would not be finished on time or on budget. The $102 million project, started in 2003, aimed to study the possible uses of the compact stellarator as the basis for a fusion power reactor.

Instead, the DOE decided that the lab should devote its efforts to the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), a project focused on plasma geometry and heating that is at the forefront of fusion physics.

“The decision to focus on the NSTX will strengthen PPPL’s position as a world leader in fusion science, and enables the lab to work with the world community on the cutting edge of fusion research,” Smith said in a University statement after the DOE’s announcement.

With Prager’s experience in the field of fusion physics, it is expected that he will ably guide the lab into a new era of research.

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“We believe that there is no better person than Stewart Prager to lead the Plasma Physics Laboratory as it moves into the next phase in its distinguished history,” President Tilghman said in the statement announcing Prager’s appointment.