Temkin Honored with IEEE Pierce Award

Jennifer Scarborough

May 29, 2024

 

Senior Research Scientist Richard Temkin has won the 2024 John R. Pierce Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Named for scientist  John Robinson Pierce who was fundamental to the development of transistors and communications satellites, this annual award celebrates outstanding contributions in the field of vacuum electronics. The IEEE Pierce Award Technical Committee honored Temkin “for pioneering research and for student education in high frequency and high power vacuum electron devices and their applications.”

The Pierce Award is one of many in a long list of accolades for Temkin, who has been a Senior Scientist in the Physics Department and a Plasma Science and Fusion Center researcher for over 40 years and is the head of the Center’s Waves and Beams division. His research encompasses gyrotrons, high power microwaves, high gradient accelerators, and high magnetic field nuclear magnetic resonance technology, in addition to vacuum electronics. The latter is especially important for fusion science, as vacuum electronics are a vital component of confining and heating fusing plasmas. 

In its early days, the field of vacuum electronics enabled the creation and proliferation of ubiquitous technologies like televisions and microwaves. At present, the advanced technologies supported by vacuum electronics are equally ubiquitous, if less visible: radiation therapy devices used to treat cancer patients, gyrotrons capable of deep geothermal energy production, and more have their foundation in vacuum electronics science.

"I’ve been involved in a number of research communities and it’s quite an honor to be recognized by this group," said Temkin. "John Pierce was an outstanding scientist, so it’s nice to have an award with his name on it."

 

Topics: Rick Temkin