Patrick H. Diamond, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator and Distinguished Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics and Physics — University of California San Diego
Prof. Patrick H. Diamond is an internationally recognized theoretical plasma physicist. His research interests relate to areas of plasma and fluid turbulence, transport, magnetic confinement physics, dynamo theory, and plasma astrophysics.
Prof. Diamond has been Principal Investigator of the Fusion and Astrophysical Plasma Physics Group at CASS, UC San Diego, for more than 30 years and was a founding faculty member of UC San Diego’s Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A). He joined the UC San Diego faculty in 1987 and became Distinguished Professor in 2007. Prof. Diamond has been the primary advisor of more than 36 Ph.D. thesis students and 35 postdoctoral researchers.
Prof. Diamond recently served as a lead organizer for the 2024 Isaac Newton Institute Program “Anti-Diffusion, from Sub-Cellular to Astrophysical Scales” in Cambridge, UK. In 2021, he was a lead coordinator for the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Program “Staircase 21.” Previously, he was Director of the WCI Fusion Theory Institute at the National Fusion Research Institute in Korea (2010-2014), as well as Co-Principal Investigator of the Center for Momentum Transport and Flow Self-Organization at UC San Diego.
Prof. Diamond is a Fellow of the APS-DPP. His other honors include:
- European Physical Society's Hannes Alfvén Prize, EPS Plasma Physics Division (2011) — shared with Hasegawa and Mima
- IAEA Nuclear Fusion Journal Award (2012)
- Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (1986)
- Southwestern Institute of Physics Global Expert Award (2015, 2016-2021)
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1988)
- Outstanding Paper Award, Journal of Physical Society of Japan (2012)
- High End Foreign Expert Award, Beijing University (2014)
- National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989)
- Finalist for the Alan T. Waterman Award Competition, National Science Foundation (1990, 1991)
- Technical Achievement Award by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, ORNL (1985)
- Karl Taylor Compton Graduate Fellowship at MIT (1976-1979)
Prof. Diamond earned a Ph.D. from MIT in 1979. He then became a Member of the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey and a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Fusion Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
On the Web
Email: pdiamond@ucsd.edu
UC San Diego Departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics (A&A) and Physics: astro.ucsd.edu
Center for Space and Astrophysics Sciences: cass.ucsd.edu
Center for Energy Research: cer.ucsd.edu
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3273-2604