Warren Bicknell Mori (born August 8, 1959) is an American computational plasma

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and a professor at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He was awarded the 2020 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics for his contributions to the theory and

computer simulations Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be dete ...

of non-linear processes in plasma-based acceleration using

kinetic theory Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to: * Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion * Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to its motion Art and ente ...

, as well as for his research in relativistically intense lasers and beam-plasma interactions.

Early life and career

Mori received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1981. He then went to the

(UCLA) and obtained a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...

and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(Ph.D.) in 1984 and 1987 respectively. For his Ph.D. in electrical engineering, Mori was supervised by plasma physicists Francis F. Chen,

John M. Dawson John Myrick Dawson (30 September 1930 in Champaign, Illinois – 17 November 2001 in Los Angeles) was an American computational physicist and the father of plasma-based acceleration techniques. Dawson earned his degrees in physics from t ...

and Chandrashekhar J. Joshi, all of whom were noted for winning the James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics. Mori then remained at UCLA, and has been there ever since. Mori was a director of UCLA's Institute for Digital Research and Education. He is currently a director of UCLA's Particle-in-Cell and Kinetic Simulation Software Center and Plasma Simulation Group.

Honors and awards

Mori is a fellow 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 ...

and the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

. In 1995, Mori received the International Center for Theoretical Physics Medal for Excellence in Nonlinear Plasma Physics by a Young Researcher. He also won the 2016 Advanced Accelerator Concepts Prize of the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...

for "''his leadership and pioneering contributions in theory and particle-in-cell code simulations of plasma based particle acceleration''". Mori was awarded the 2020 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics for "''leadership in and pioneering contributions to the theory and kinetic simulations of nonlinear processes in plasma-based acceleration, and relativistically intense laser and beam plasma interactions".''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mori, Warren Bicknell Living people 1959 births 21st-century American physicists American plasma physicists Computational physicists Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of the American Physical Society University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Los Angeles alumni