Steven Cowley facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sir Steve Cowley
FRS FREng FInstP
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Cowley in 2014
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| 7th Director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2018 |
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| President | Donald Trump Joe Biden |
| Preceded by | Richard J. Hawryluk (interim) |
| 31st President of the Corpus Christi College | |
| In office 1 October 2016 – 30 September 2018 |
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| Preceded by | Richard Carwardine |
| Succeeded by | Helen Moore |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Steven Charles Cowley
1959 (age 65–66) Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England |
| Children | Sean Cowley and Brendan Cowley |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Fusion power |
| Awards | Knight Bachelor (2018) Glazebrook Medal (2012) Harkness Fellowship (1981–83) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | |
| Institutions |
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| Thesis | Some Aspects of Anomalous Transport in Tokamaks: Stochastic Magnetic Fields, Tearing Modes and Nonlinear Ballooning Instabilities (Convection) (1985) |
| Doctoral advisor | Russell Kulsrud |
Sir Steven Charles Cowley (born 1959) is a British scientist. He is a top expert in nuclear fusion and plasma physics. Plasma is a special state of matter, like a super-hot gas.
Sir Steve has held many important jobs. Since 2018, he has been the director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in the United States. Before that, he was the president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, a famous university college. He also led the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
Contents
How Sir Steve Studied
Sir Steve Cowley earned a scholarship to study at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. In 1981, he finished his first degree in Physics.
He then went to Princeton University in the US. There, he was a Harkness Fellow. In 1985, he earned his PhD. His research was about tokamaks. These are machines used to study fusion.
Sir Steve's Work and Discoveries
After his PhD, Sir Steve did more research at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. He returned to Princeton in 1987. Later, he joined the faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1993. He became a full professor there in 2000.
From 2001 to 2003, he led the plasma physics group at Imperial College London. In 2008, he became the head of the EURATOM / CCFE Fusion Association. He also became the chief executive of UKAEA in 2009.
In 2016, he became the 31st President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. This was special because he was the first scientist to hold this position. In 2018, he started his current role at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
What is Plasma and Fusion?
Sir Steve's main research focuses on plasmas and nuclear fusion. Fusion is the process that powers the Sun. It could be a clean energy source for the future. He studies plasmas in labs, like in the Joint European Torus (JET) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). These are big machines designed to create fusion.
He also studies astrophysical plasmas. These are plasmas found in space, like in stars and galaxies. His work helps us understand how these huge plasmas behave.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Sir Steve Cowley has received many awards for his work.
Becoming a Royal Society Fellow
In 2014, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK.
The Royal Society noted his work on plasma turbulence. This is like chaotic movement in plasma. Controlling this movement is key to making fusion work.
They also highlighted his leadership in the ITER project. ITER is a huge international effort to build a fusion reactor. It aims to show that fusion can produce more energy than it uses.
His interest also includes plasmas in space. He showed that these plasmas are also often turbulent. This turbulence helps shape their magnetic fields.
Other Important Awards
Sir Steve was also made a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1998. He became a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2004. In 2014, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
In 2018, he was appointed a Knight Bachelor. This means he received the title "Sir" for his services to science and fusion. In 2019, he received an honorary degree from the University of Lancaster. This recognized his standing as a world expert in fusion energy.
