duda.html

Theoretical Plasma

Office: A-137
Phone: (310) 825-1787
Fax: (310) 825-4057
e-mail: bjduda@physics.ucla.edu

on this page:

Objective

To pursue a research career in laser-plasma interactions

Professional/Research Experience

Research Assistant in Theoretical Plasma Physics (1997-Present)
Worked with Professor Warren Mori to develop a variational principle approach for deriving accurate envelope equations for the evolution of a short-pulse laser propagating through an underdense plasma, and ran simulations using the quasi-static PIC code WAKE, and the fully explicit, object-oriented PIC code, OSIRIS.

Teaching Assistant , UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy (1996-1997)
Taught discussion sections for upper-division electricity and magnetism, upper-division classical mechanics, and laboratory courses.
1996 Outstanding Teaching Commendation

A Covariant Extended Model of a Charged Particle (1995)
Worked with Professor Kenneth Johnson at MIT to develop a covariant extended model of a charged particle, so as to eliminate the infinite self energy of a point particle. This project culminated in a Bachelor of Science Thesis.
Summer 1995 Research Award

Analysis of Type 2 Bursts from the X-Ray Binary, The Rapid Burster (1993-94)
Worked with Professor Walter H.G. Lewin at MIT to analyze X-Ray data collected by the Japanese X-Ray Observatory GINGA. Work involved producing FFTs of the data, to study the Quasi-Periodic Oscillations in the bursts.
Space Grant Research Award (1993, 1994)

Teaching Assistant in MIT Concourse Program (1993-95)
Taught weekly 2-hour tutorial sections for Calculus 1 and 2 in MITs Concourse program - a freshman program at MIT in which students attend small classes of less than 50 students.. It is modelled after programs used at Cambridge University, England.

A Model of Particle Motion in 3 Dimensions (1992)
Developed a 3 dimensional Fortran code, using both Monte Carlo and Numerical Integration techniques, to simulate particle motion in solution on the Cray Y-MP supercomputer at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center .
PSC Award for Scientific and High Performance Computing (1992)

Education

Hampton High School
Allison Park, PA
High School Diploma/Class valedictorian (1992)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA
Bachelor of Science, Physics/4.44 (5.0 scale) GPA (1996)

University of California at Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
Master of Science, Physics (1998)

Organizations

MIT Student House Cooperative Living Group of 30 People.
Boston, MA
House President: Fall 1993, Fall 1994, Spring 1995, Fall 1995
Vice President: Spring 1994

Publications

1. B.J. Duda and W.B Mori, A New Long-Wavelength Hosing Instability in Laser-Plasma Interactions, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett., 1999.
2. B.J. Duda and W.B. Mori, A Variational Principle Approach to Short-Pulse Laser Plasma Interactions in 3D, submitted to Phys. Rev. E., 1999.
3. B.J. Duda and W.B. Mori, in Proceedings of the 1999 Particle Accelerator Conference, New York, NY.

Presentations

1. B.J. Duda and W.B Mori, A Variational Principle Approach to Short-Pulse Laser Plasma Interactions in 3D, poster, to be presented at Anomalous Absorption Conference, Monterey Bay, CA 1999.
2. B.J. Duda and W.B. Mori, A Variational Principle Approach to Short-Pulse Laser Plasma Interactions in 3D, poster presented at PAC99.
3. F.S. Wang, L.O. Silva, R.G. Hemker, D. Gordon, B.J. Duda, W.B. Mori, UCLA; T. Katsouleas, USC; T. Antonsen JR, University of Maryland; P. Mora, Ecole Polytechnique, Self-Consistent Modelling of Electron Accelerators in Various Plasma Acceleration Designs, poster presented at PAC99.
4. B.J. Duda and W.B. Mori, A Variational Principle Approach to Short-Pulse Laser Plasma Interactions, poster presented at 1998 APS Division of Plasma Physics Conference, New Orleans, LA.
5. B.J. Duda and W.B. Mori, A Variational Principle Approach to Short-Pulse Laser Plasma Interactions, poster presented at 1998 Anomalous Absorption Conference, Bar Harbor, Maine.

References

Professor Warren Mori: 310-206-0372, mori@physics.ucla.edu
Professor John Dawson: 310-825-7814, dawson@physics.ucla.edu
Professor Steven Cowley: 310-825-4770, cowley@physics.ucla.edu
Professor Chan Joshi: 310-825-7279, joshi@ee.ucla.edu

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