Warren B. Mori
University of California, Los Angeles
Candidate for General Councillor
Biographical Summary
Professor Warren B. Mori received his BS from UC Berkeley in 1981, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from UCLA in 1984 and 1987, respectively. He has been on the research and regular faculty of the Physics and Astronomy and of the Electrical Engineering Departments at UCLA since 1987. Starting in 1998 he has been a full professor in both departments. Since the fall of 2006 he has been the Director of the UCLA Institute for Digital Research and Education.
His current research interests are in plasma physics, laser and beam plasma interactions, plasma based accelerators and light sources, inertial confinement fusion, high energy density science, relativistic shocks, and high performance computing. He has pioneered the use of particle-in-cell methods for modeling laser and wakefield accelerators. He has made seminal contributions on the acceleration of charged particles in nonlinear plasma waves, on the excitation of relativistic plasma waves by lasers and particles beams, and on the stability of lasers and particle beams as they propagate through tenuous plasmas. He has also made significant contributions on the fast ignition scheme for inertial confinement fusion and on the role of the Weibel instability in relativistic shocks.
Prof. Mori holds patents for upshifting light frequency by rapid plasma creation, and for the use of relativistic ionization fronts for tunable radiation. He was awarded the International Center for Theoretical Physics Medal for Excellence in Nonlinear Plasma Physics by a Young Researcher in 1995, and in 1997 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for his "outstanding contributions to particle simulations of complex laser-plasma phenomena and of plasma based light sources". He was elected a Fellow of IEEE in 2006 for his work in plasma science. He has served on many panels and committees. He has advised fifteen graduate students including two recipients of APS best thesis prizes and mentored 7 post doctoral researchers.
Candidate's Statement
I am honored to run for a General Councillor position in the American Physical Society. Our Society has a diverse membership, including those early and late in their careers, and those in academia, industry, national laboratories, and government service. While the specifics of our careers are different, we have in common that we chose to be a physicist because we believe it to be a noble career and because we find it fun. The APS plays a very positive and important role for our membership through its peer recognition in the form of awards and fellowship, its publications, its support of general and division meetings, its government relations, and its public outreach.
In today's world where information sometimes seems to move faster than the speed of light and where there are so many career choices for bright and talented students, it is more important the ever that we attract talented individuals into our profession and make the public and the government aware of the value and need for funding in basic research in physics. This is also an auspicious time where our society faces grand challenges such as climate change and energy short falls. It is more important than ever that the APS be visible and vocal in driving science policy. If elected I will hopefully provide sound judgment and common sense regarding policy decisions that improve the effectiveness of the APS during my tenure as a General Solicitor.
