Dr. Ronald M. Gilgenbach is a Professor and the current Chair of the Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department at the University of Michigan. He is international recognized for his storied career in the field of Plasma Physics, including some of the earliest tokamak plasma research in the United States. Dr. Gilgenbach has been at the University of Michigan since 1980 and has held his current position as Chair of the Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department since 2010. Still active in research, he is also the lead faculty of the Plasma, Pulsed Power, and Microwave Laboratory at the University of Michigan.
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Biography
Dr. Gilgenbach attended the University of Wisconsin for both his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and M.S in Electrical Engineering in 1972 and 1973, respectively. He went on to receive his Ph.D also in Electrical Engineering at Columbia University in 1978. During this same period, he was involved with Bell Labs as part of the technical staff. After completing his Ph.D, Dr. Gilgenbach performed gyrotron research at the Naval Research Lab as well as the first electron cyclotron heating experiments on a tokamak plasma in the USA at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Since then, he has been at the University of Michigan where he has published over 150 articles in refereed journals and supervised 42 graduated Ph.D. students. His work at the university has been focused on particle accelerators, plasma physics, pulsed power, and microwave research. Dr. Gilgenbach was a crucial part in updating the University of Michigan's plasma coursework, helping the department to maintain the nuclear engineering department as one of the top in the nation.