Alfred Y. Wong

Exp. Plasma & Environmental Physics

Office: 4-720 PAB
Phone: (310) 825-1642
email

• UCLA Plasma and Environmental Physics Laboratory and HIPAS (HIgh Power Auroral Stimulation
• Plasma Science and Technology Institute

Educational Background:

• B.S., Engineering Physics and M.A., Physics, Toronto, 1958
• M.Sc., Applied Mathematics, U. of Illinois, 1961
• Ph.D., Plasma Physics, Princeton, 1963

Research Interest:

Professor Wong is director of the Plasma Physics Laboratory at UCLA, and director of the HIPAS Observatory at Fairbanks, Alaska.

Professor Wong's specialization lies in the physics of ions in plasmas, in areas of linear and nonlinear wave phenomena, cyclotron waves, ion acoustic waves, drift waves, microwave radiation, electron and ion wave echoes, nonlinear dynamic equilibria, and mode coupling. He has worked with fully ionized plasmas in Q devices, designed surface confinement devices and participated in ionospheric wave excitation experiments since 1970. In addition, he has worked with superconducting magnets and negative ion beams. He has been consultant to industrial and government labs in the areas of isotope separation, ion sources, ion beam acceleration, non-neutral ion plasmas and space exploration. He has applied basic plasma physics to finding a solution to the ozone depletion problem. Professor Wong has opened new areas in environmental physics and is the author of the widely used laboratory manual "Introduction to Experimental Plasma Physics".

Professor Wong has, for the past several years, investigated the application of the high power, atmospheric pressure, rf torch to waste disposal problems. Current research is being performed with a 100 kW unit at the HIPAS site under a grant from the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation. Associated research on the development of a plasma centrifuge for the separation of heavy elements from a stream of mixed waste was funded by Westinghouse-Hanford. Professor Wong has received a patent on a unique version of the torch-centrifuge combination for application to the waste disposal problem. In a closely related area, Professor Wong has been directing research on the application of the Dawson Plasma Separation Process to the separation (purification) of isotopes, particularly for medical uses.

Professor Wong has graduated 24 PhD students over his 30 years at UCLA, and has directed the research of 16 post-doctoral physicists. He has over 130 publications in the various fields of plasma physics.

He is a Fellow in the American Physical Society, a member of the American Geophysical Union, and a director of the Ozone Society.

Selected Recent Publications:

1. Ionospheric RF Lidar, T. Fukuchi, A.Y. Wong, and R.F. Wuerker, Radio Science, November 1990.
2. Computer Simulation of Ionospheric Radio Frequency Heating, R.A. Close, B.S. Bauer, A.Y. Wong, A.B. Langdon, W.L. Kruer, and E. Mjolhus, Radio Science, 1990.
3. Channel Probe Observations of the Aurora Ionosphere During High-Power Auroral Stimulation Heating Experiments, L.S. Wagner, J.A. Goldstein, R.W. Lind, A.Y. Wong, and M.J. McCarrick, Radio Science, November 1990.