Professor Steven J. Rose

Steven J. Rose, Ph.D., FInstP, FRAS is Professor of Plasma Physics and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London. He is also Editor-in-Chief of High Energy Density Physics.
 
His research concentrates on the design and analysis of experiments fielded on high-power lasers and pulsed-power machines. These experiments produce, in miniature and for a very short time, extreme plasma conditions similar to those found in a variety of exotic astrophysical objects, ranging from planetary interiors to conditions found at the center of the Sun and more highly-evolved stars. This subject is known as High Energy Density Physics.
 
As well as being of wide scientific interest this work is also of relevance to the study of inertial confinement fusion in which thermonuclear fusion energy is generated in the laboratory using plasmas of high energy density. In the longer term inertial confinement fusion may generate electrical energy and Steve is one of the spokespersons of the UK Inertial Fusion Energy Network.
 
Steve joined the College as the Head of the Plasma Physics Group in December 2006, a position he held until October 2012. Prior to this he was at Oxford University as a William Penney Visiting Professor and Keeley Visiting Fellow of Wadham College. He has worked in plasma physics for all of his career, with a particular emphasis on plasmas produced using high-power lasers. He has spent much of that time working at the two high-power laser facilities in the UK: the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory’s Central Laser Facility where he became the Associate Director for Physics and at AWE Aldermaston where he was the Head of Plasma Physics.
 
In 2008 he was the first Director of the Institute of Shock Physics at Imperial College, a position he held until 2011. In 2009 he was appointed the co-Director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies and from October 2011 he has been the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
 
In 2013 he became one of the spokespersons of the UK Inertial Fusion Energy Network.
 
Steve coauthored A photon–photon collider in a vacuum hohlraum, Fast heating of ultrahigh-density plasma as a step towards laser fusion ignition, Laser amplification at 18.2 nm in recombining plasma from a laser-irradiated carbon fiber, Experimental studies of the advanced fast ignitor scheme, and Plasma ion emission from high intensity picosecond laser pulse interactions with solid targets, and authored Calculations of the radiative opacity of laser-produced plasmas. Read the full list of his publications!
 
Steve is Fellow of Institute of Physics and Fellow of Royal Astronomical Society. Read Scientists discover how to turn light into matter after 80-year quest.