Richard Hazeltine

Professor; Department Chairman

I was hooked on physics in high school after reading a book about Descartes’s vortices. About 10 years later I wrote a thesis on classical and quantum field theory, but realized after finishing it that I wanted to do something with real-world significance. So I entered the fusion research program, becoming a theoretical plasma physicist. (I have no laboratory skills at all.) Fusion research has been fun for me, partly because of the exciting potential benefits from fusion energy, but also because I love playing with Maxwell’s equations and kinetic theory, and constructing models of hot, magnetized plasmas. Over the years this enjoyment led me to research in transport theory, astrophysics, and nonlinear dynamics.