High Field Science Group Biographies


Donald Umstadter

Position title: Professor
Department affiliation: Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Science

Position title: Professor
Department affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Education history:
B.S. (1981), M.S. (1983), Ph.D. (1987), Physics Department, University of California, Los Angeles.
Advisor: J. Dawson, Physics Dept., and C. Joshi, Elec. Eng. Dept. Thesis title: Nonlinear Behavior of Electron Plasma Waves Driven by Stimluated Raman Backscattering.

Professional postions:
Postdoctoral Fellow, AT&T Bell Laboratories and U. Maryland (1987-1989)
Assistant Research Scientist, Elect. Engin. and Comp. Sci. Dept., U. Michigan (1989-1995)
Adjunct Professor, Nucl. Engin. and Rad. Sci. Dept., U. Michigan (1994-1997)
Associate Research Scientist, Elect. Engin. and Comp. Sci. Dept., U. Michigan (1995-1997)

Homepage: http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~dpu/

Dr. Umstadter's Ph. D. research involved laser-plasma interactions, including the study of non-linear plasma waves generated by stimulated Raman scattering and optical mixing. He then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, in the area of high field science. Since September of 1989, he has been a research scientist in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan. As an adjunct assistant professor in both the Nuclear Engineering Dept. and the Applied Physics Program, he has developed and teaches a graduate level course titled {High Intensity Laser Plasma Interactions}. He now coordinates the high field science program at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, which is a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. This involves the supervision of a postdoc and six Ph. D. candidates. His current research is on the development and applications of compact and ultrashort-pulse duration particle accelerators and short-wavelength radiation sources, which are generated by the interaction of intense short-pulse lasers with plasmas. He is also pioneering a new field, the optics of relativistic plasmas. 


Mike Downer

Position title: Associate Professor
Department affiliation: Physics Department, University of Texas at Austin

Education history:
Ph.D. 1983, Harvard University, Applied Physics

Professional postions:
Associate Professor, U. Texas (1991-present);
Assistant Professor, U. Texas (1985-1991);
Postdoctoral Fellow, AT&T Bell Laboratories (1983-85)

Homepage: http://www.ph.utexas.edu/dept/research/downer

M. C. Downer was born in Rockville Centre, New York in 1954. He received a Ph.D. in 1983 from Harvard University, where he performed a two-photon absorption spectroscopic study of rare earth ions in crystalline and aqueous hosts [Phys. Rev. B 28, 3677 (1983)]. During postdoctoral work at AT&T Bell Laboratories, he contributed to the early development of femtosecond light sources and ultrafast spectroscopy, including femtosecond strobe photography of melting semiconductor surfaces [J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 2, 595 (1985)]. He joined the Physics Department faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in 1985, where he is currently Associate Professor of Physics. Dr. Downer received a Presidential Young Investigator Award, an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award, and an IBM Faculty Development Award in 1988. His recent research interests include femtosecond optical characterization of extreme states of matter such as liquid carbon [Phys. Rev. B 45, 2677 (1992)], femtosecond probing of ionization fronts and Langmuir waves in underdense plasmas [Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 3570 (1996)], and real-time nonlinear optical probing of semiconductor interfaces [Phys. Rev. B 53, R7607 (1996)]. He spent the first half of 1996 on sabbatical at CUOS working with Don Umstadter's group on electron acceleration and optical scattering in intensely irradiated underdense plasmas. He also performed the Scottish sword dance and tried unsuccessfully to defeat Gerard Mourou at squash. 


Evan Dodd

Position title: Gradtuate Student Research Assistant
Department affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Michigan

Education history:
B.S. Physics B.A. Mathematics 1990, University of Washington
M.S. Physics 1993, Unveristy of Michigan

Homepage: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dodd


Xiaofang Wang

Position title: Visiting Research Investigator
Department affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan

Education history:
B.S. 1987, Physics Department, Ji-Lin University, Chang-Chun, China
M.S. 1990, Ph.D. 1993, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Dr. Wang's M.S. and Ph.D. studies were with investigation of laser plasma produced XUV (stimulated) emission by means of spectral, spatial and temporal resolution. From 1996 to 1997, he visited Max-Planck-Institut fuer Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany, supported by Max-Planck-Gesellschaft stipendium. In June, 1997 he moved to Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan as a research fellow. His current research is with electron acceleration based on laser excited plasma waves. Besides his research work, he spends most time with their i.e., both his wife's and his one-year-old son.

Homepage: none


Robert Wagner

Position title: Gradtuate Student Research Assistant
Department affiliation: Applied Physics, University of Michigan

Education history:
B.S. Physics 1992, Harvey Mudd College
M.S. Applied Physics 1995, University of Michigan

Homepage: none 


Paul Le Blanc

Position title: Postdoctoral Researcher
Department affiliation: Dept. of Physics, University of Texas at Austin

Education history:
B.S. 1989, Rice University
M.S. 1991, Rice University
Ph.D. 1994, Rice University

Professional postions: Member OSA, IEEE, IEEE/LEOS

Stephen Paul Le Blanc was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1967. After receiving his Ph.D. degree from Rice University in 1994, he worked at the Institut fur Optik und Quantenelektronik in Jena, Germany for nine months. Working with Prof. M. Downer in the Dept. of Phyics at the University of Texas at Austin, he has helped to develop ultrafast optical diagnostics for laser driven plasma accelerators.
Homepage: not yet 


Jonathan Workman

Position title: Graduate Student Research Assistant
Department affiliation: Nuclear Engineering, University of Michigan

Education history:
B.A. Physics 1989, Cornell University

Jonathan Workman is presently a graduate student at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, University of Michigan. Thesis work consists of characterizing and controlling the XUV emission from ultrafast-laser-solid interactions and applying this emission in ultrafast time resolved absorption spectroscopy measurements. Currently, the broadband XUV emission is being applied to time resolved absorption mesurements of shock propagation in thin metal foils. Additional work at the center has included work on a jitter-free x-ray streak camera as well as extensive time devoted to operating and upgrading the ultrashort pulse laser systems. 


Marc Nantel

Position title: Research Fellow
Department affiliation: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Dept., University of Michigan

Marc comes from Montreal, Canada, where he obtained his B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the McGill University Physics Department in 1987 and 1990, respectively. The M.Sc. was in Experimental Nuclear Physics: "Bunched beams from RFQ traps for spectroscopy studies". Interested more by the laser and spectroscopy aspects of this work than by the nuclear physics, Marc shifted gears for his Ph.D. and went over to the spectroscopy of laser-produced plasmas. This degree was obtained in 1994 from INRS-Energie et Materiaux in Varennes, Canada, with a french title which loosely translates to "Studies of inhomogeneities in laser-produced line plasmas showing gain in the X-rays region". This study of X-ray laser plasmas involved time- and space-resolved keV spectroscopy, spectroscopic diagnostics of the plasma conditions, as well as simulations of the plasma hydrodynamics and atomic physics.

 After a one-year post-doc at the Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Atomique et Ionique (Universite de Paris-Sud, Orsay, France) further studying X-ray laser plasmas, Marc accepted a 3-year position of Research Fellow at the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA) in 1995. His current research interests include the generation of ultra-short X-ray pulses for the study of plasma and chemical dynamics. Marc is also coordinator of the Center's 10-Hz, 100-fs, 100-mJ Ti:Sapphire laser. 


Szu-yuan Chen

Position title: Research Assistant
Department affiliation: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Dept., University of Michigan

Education history:
1987~1991 Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taiwan (BS)
1991~1993 Army
1993~ 1994 Institute of Atomic and Molecular Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (RA)
1994~ Ph.D. program in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, USA

Interest: Everything in Physics
Exercise: tennis, ice-skating


Ned Saleh

Position Title: Graduate Student Research Assistant
Departmental Affiliation: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan

Education History:
1993 :B.S. Physics and Math., Kuwait University
1993-1995: M.A. Computational Nuclear Physics, Western Michigan University.
1995-1997: Visiting Graduate Student, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
1997-... : Ph.D. Precandidate, University of Michigan.

Homepage: http://www-personal.engin .umich.edu/~nedsaleh


Mohan Krishnan

Position Title: Graduate Student Research Assistant
Departmental Affiliation: Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, University of Michigan

Education History:
B.S.E. Engineering Physics, 1993, University of Michigan

Homepage: http://www-personal.engin .umich.edu/~yohann


Shaoting Gu

Position title: Research Assistant
Department affiliation: Physics Dept., University of Michigan

Education history:
85, B.S Nanjing Normal University. 88, M.S. Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics of the Chinese Academy Of Sciences. After got my M.S. degree from the Shanghai Institute, I work in the Institute on Solid state Lasers as well as the thermal effects of Glass Lasers. I came to the Eastern Michigan University as a visiting scholar sponsored by the Chinese Education Commission in 1995, and then transfered to the University of Michigan.
My hobby in China was cards, as well as Chinese 'Ma-Jiang'. Now, in America, I want to develop a new hobby-- running( I haven't started yet). 


Anatoly M. Maksimchuk

Position title: Associate Research Scientist
Department affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan

Education history:

 M.S. (1979) Moscow Physical-Engineering Institute, Moscow, Russia. Ph.D. (1991), P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. Thesis title: "The method of active quasi-monochromatic x-ray diagnostic of laser-produced plasmas"

Professional positions:

 Assistant Research Scientist, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan (1996-present)

Associate Research in Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan (1995-1996)

Visiting Associate Research Scientist, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan (1992-1994)

Researcher, Department of Quantum Radiophysics, P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia (1986-1992)

Junior Scientist, Department of Quantum Radiophysics, P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia (1982-1985)

Engineer, Department of Quantum Radiophysics, P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia (1979-1981)

Research activities and interests:

 Dr. Maksimchuk's Ph.D. research involved theoretical and experimental investigation of x-ray radiation transport in a hot dense plasma of the thermonuclear targets. His current research interests include the following areas: Ultrashort solid state lasers for the laser-plasma interaction; Physics of laser-plasma interaction at ultrahigh intensities; Development and applications of ultrafast short-wavelength radiation sources; X-ray, XUV and optical diagnostics of the laser produced plasma; Ultrafast detection of x-ray and XUV radiation from the subpicosecond laser-plasma interaction; X-ray radiation transport in hot, dense plasma. Currently Dr. A. Maksimchuk is a responsible for the development and operation of 10 TW Ti: sapphire - Nd: phosphate glass laser. 


Robin Marjoribanks

Position title: Associate Professor
Department affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Toronto

Education history:
BSc, 1978, University of Toronto, Mathematics and Physics
MSc, 1981, University of Toronto, Physics
MS(Eng), 1981, University of Rochester, Plasma Physics
PhD, 1988, University of Rochester, (Laboratory for Laser Energetics)

Professional postions:
Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Univ. of Toronto
Project Leader, Ontario Laser and Lightwave Research Centre
Member, School of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto
University Research Fellow, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Homepage: http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~marj

Research interests: atomic physics of nonlinear interaction with strong radiation fields; ionization and excitation in laser-plasmas; high-harmonic generation in laser-plasma interaction; short-wavelength source development (XUV, soft x-ray), and materials applications; development of ultra high peak power lasers.