Prof. Mark Kushner, George I. Haddad Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of the Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering, was awarded the 2010 Will Allis Prize for the Study of Ionized Gases from the American Physical Society.

Prof. Kushner received this award, "For ground-breaking contributions to developing and applying hybrid plasma models that have advanced the fundamental understanding of the chemistry, surface kinetics, and energy transport in low temperature plasmas." His research area is low temperature plasmas, their fundamental properties and technological applications, ranging from lasers to material processing.

Mark J. Kushner received the BS in Nuclear Engineering and the BA in Astronomy from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1976; and the MS and Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1977 and 1979.

He served on the technical staffs of Sandia National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory before joining Spectra Technology where he was Director of Electron, Atomic, and Molecular Physics. In 1986, Dr. Kushner joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was the Founder Professor of Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering while also serving in many administrative roles. In January 2005, Dr. Kushner became Dean of Engineering and the Melsa Professor of Engineering at Iowa State University where he established the Engineering Policy and Leadership Institute and initiated the 2050 Challenge to focus education, research and outreach on addressing the most pressing of societal issues.

Prof. Kushner joined the University of Michigan as founding director of the Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering and George I. Haddad Collegiate Professor in September 2008. He also holds appointments in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences and in the Applied Physics Program.

He is a Fellow of the APS, IEEE, Optical Society of America, American Vacuum Society and Institute of Physics. He is on the editorial boards of several journals and editor-in-chief of Plasma Sources Science and Technology. Prof. Kushner has received the Semiconductor Research Corp. Technical Excellence Award, the Tegal Thinker Award for Plasma Etch Technology, the AVS Plasma Science and Technology Award, IEEE Plasma Science and Applications Award and the Semiconductor Industry Association University Researcher Award.

About the Award

The Will Allis Prize was established in 1989 in recognition of the outstanding contributions of Will Allis to the study of ionized gases. It is awarded in even-numbered years.

The Allis Prize will be presented at the 41st Annual Meeting of the APS Physics Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, DAMOP 2010, to be held in Houston, TX, May 25-29, 2010.

APS Physics Announcement of Prof. Kushner's award

Posted: October 6, 2009 by
Catharine June
EECS/ECE Communications Coordinator
cmsj@umich.edu or 734-936-2965