Richard John Buttery is a British-American theoretical

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 ...

physicist and the director of the DIII-D National Fusion Facility at General Atomics. He is an elected fellow of the Institute of Physics and 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 ...

Early life and career

Buttery obtained a B.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics from the University of Manchester in 1990 and 1994 respectively. His dissertation was on the photon fragmentation function in

quantum chromodynamics In theoretical physics, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) is the theory of the strong interaction between quarks mediated by gluons. Quarks are fundamental particles that make up composite hadrons such as the proton, neutron and pion. QCD is a type ...

. Following his graduation, Buttery joined the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, where he worked at the Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak (MAST) and the Joint European Torus (JET) for 16 years until 2009. In that year, Buttery relocated to the United States and joined General Atomics as a program planning coordinator for the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. In 2012, Buttery became the Director for Experimental Science and has been leading the DIII-D scientific team ever since.

Scientific contributions

Buttery is a member of the

Division of Plasma Physics Executive Committee and the U.S. Burning Plasma Organization Council.

Honors and awards

Buttery was elected as a fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2009. In 2019, he was elected as a fellow of the

for "pioneering contributions to the understanding of magnetohydrodynamics stability in tokamak plasmas, including the physics of tearing modes and magnetic field errors, and for outstanding scientific leadership of national and international fusion research ".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buttery, Richard John Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Manchester Plasma physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society