Friedrich Wagner (physicist)

Friedrich Wagner (* 16th November 1943 in Oberpfaffenhofen , often as Fritz Wagner abbreviated) is a German physicist and emeritus professors . His specialty is plasma physics . Most recently he was full professor at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald and director at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics .

Career

Wagner studied at the Technical University in Munich . He also completed his doctorate at the Technical University of Munich in 1972. He then worked from 1973 to 1974 at Ohio State University . At first he dealt with low-temperature physics, but under the impression of the energy crisis at the time, he switched to fusion research in plasma physics. In 1975 he started working for the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics , for which he headed the tokamak experiment ASDEX from 1986 .

In 1988 Wagner completed his habilitation at the University of Heidelberg , where he was given a teaching position. He was then appointed honorary professor at the Technical University of Munich. From 1989 to 1993 Wagner was the project manager of the Wendelstein 7-AS stellarator experiment .

He has been director at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics since 1993, from 2003 to 2005 he was head of the Wendelstein 7-X department . From 1999 he was a full professor at the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald . At the end of 2008 he retired.

He received the Stern-Gerlach Prize above all for the discovery of self-organized transport barriers in high-temperature plasmas, the H-mode. It is important for the confinement of the fusion plasmas.

Memberships and honors

1987 Wagner was awarded the prize of the Plasma Physics Division of the American Physical Society honored for "Excellency in Plasma Physics". He is an honorary member of the Joffe Institute in Saint Petersburg and a Fellow of the Institute of Physics of the American Physical Society.

From 1996 to 2004 Wagner was chairman of the plasma physics department of the European Physical Society . From April 2007 to 2009 he was President of the European Physical Society.

For his services to plasma and fusion research, Friedrich Wagner received the Stern-Gerlach Medal in March 2009 , which is the highest award for experimental physics of the German Physical Society . In 2007 he received the Hannes Alfvén Prize .

Publications (selection)

• On the way to the fusion power plant: Organized and self-organized magnetic confinement. Physik Journal Vol. 8, 2009, No. 8/9, pages 35–41 (presentation on the award of the Stern-Gerlach Medal)
• F. Wagner et al .: A Regime of Improved Confinement and High Beta in Neutral Beam Heated Divertor Discharges of ASDEX , in: Physical Review Letters 49 (1982) 1408.
• F. Wagner et al .: Evidence for an Edge Thermal Barrier Causing the H-Mode of ASDEX , in: Physical Review Letters 53 (1984) 1453.
• F. Wagner et al .: Experimental Study of the Principles Governing Tokamak Transport , in: Physical Review Letters 56 (1986) 2187.
• F. Wagner, U. Stroth: Transport in Toroidal Devices - The Experimentalist's View , in: Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 35 (1993) 1321.
• F. Wagner: A Quarter-Century of H-Mode Studies , in: Plasma Phys. Control. Merger 49 (2007) B1.
• F. Wagner et al .: W7-AS: One step of the Wendelstein stellarator line , in: Physics of Plasmas 12 (2005) 072509.
• Friedrich E. Wagner: Rudolf Mössbauer and the development of the Garching research site , in: Hyperfine Interactions, March 2012, Volume 204, Issue 1–3, pp 83–88.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wagner u. a., Phys. Rev. Lett., Vol. 49, 1982, p. 1408
2. ↑ Speech of the DPG President Gerd Litfin 2009 at the award of the Stern-Gerlach-Medal and other prizes
3. ↑ Press release of the German Physical Society (November 20, 2008)

Web links

• Literature by and about Friedrich Wagner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage of Wagner at the MPI for Plasma Physics
• Interview with Wagner on the page "German-Russian partnership"