Cynthia Elizabeth Kieras Phillips (1954 – September 1, 2015) was an American physicist known for her work on

plasma Plasma or plasm may refer to: Science * Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter * Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral * Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics Biology * Blood pla ...

, and on the use of

radio wave Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum, typically with frequencies of 300 gigahertz (GHz) and below. At 300 GHz, the corresponding wavelength is 1 mm (short ...

s to heat plasma for applications in magnetic confinement fusion.

Early life and education

Cynthia Kieras was born in 1954 in

Holyoke, Massachusetts Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 38,238. Located north of Springfield ...

, grew up nearby in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and graduated from Chicopee High School in 1972. She majored in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a bachelor's degree in 1976, and then went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison for graduate study in physics. There, she earned a master's degree in 1977, and completed her Ph.D. in 1982. Her doctoral dissertation, ''Shear Alfvén Waves in Tokamaks'', was jointly supervised by John Tataronis and Keith Symon.

Career and later life

Phillips became a researcher at Princeton University in 1983, eventually becoming a principal research physicist in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and a lecturer in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences. She died on September 1, 2015, at the

University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center (PMC), formerly known as the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, is a 355-bed non-profit, tertiary, and academic medical center located in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey, servicing the wes ...

Recognition

Phillips was named a distinguished lecturer of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

Division of Plasma Physics for 2001–2002. She was elected as a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of American Physic ...

in 2005, after a nomination from the Division of Plasma Physics, "in recognition of her fundamental theoretical and experimental contributions to the understanding of radio frequency wave-particle interactions in fusion plasmas".

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Cynthia Kieras 1954 births 2015 deaths American plasma physicists American women physicists Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Princeton University faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society Chicopee High School alumni People from Holyoke, Massachusetts Scientists from Massachusetts