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Michael Finkenthal Michael Finkenthal is a Research Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University and emeritus from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During more than twenty five years, Dr. Finkenthal’s main research interests were in the field of atomic processes in hot plasmas - both low-density fusion and high-density, laser and pulsed-power produced plasmas as well as in the development of novel XUV diagnostics for these activities. His research was conducted at the Racah Institute of Physics in Jerusalem and at various fusion research facilities in Europe (CEA – France, ENEA – Italy), USA (Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, MIT, GA, Madison – Wisconsin, Austin – Texas, etc) and Japan (National Institute for Fusion Science, Toki-City, Institute for Laser Engineering, Osaka, as well as the Universities of Tokyo and Kyoto). For most of this period, a longstanding collaboration on laboratory, as well as astrophysical plasma studies was established with Prof. H. W. Moos, who initiated a very successful program in plasma diagnostics at Johns Hopkins University: in its framework, many novel diagnostics for fusion devices have been developed and an extended work on testing collisional-radiative models and providing atomic data for fusion and astrophysical plasma physics has been performed in collaboration with scientists at NASA and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His current activities involve research on the effect of fluctuation and turbulence on particle and heat transport in ST tokamaks, novel XUV, atomic modeling for magnetically confined fusion plasmas, diagnostics developments for present and future – burning – fusion plasmas (such as ITER), as well as X-ray astrophysics. Recently, as a follow-up of research in the area of bright XUV sources and plasma imaging research in this area, Dr. Finkenthal’s interests evolved toward the possibilities to extend some of the tools and methods used in plasma physics research to other domains, as for instance biological/medical and nano-science applications. Dr. Michael Finkenthal graduated in 1968 from the Babes – Bolyai University in Cluj (Romania) and received his Ph.D in 1977 from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After a period of post doctoral studies in France and USA (at CEA – Fontenay-aux-Roses, and Hopkins and Princeton, respectively), he returned to Israel in 1982. From that date and till 2004 he was at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, from which he retired in 2004. For a list of recent publications, click here. |