Harold P. Furth Receives Priestley Award

Harold P. Furth, Director of the Plasma Physics Laboratory and Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, was presented the 1985 Priestley Award for his pioneering research in the field of plasma physics and leadership in the pursuit of a fusion energy source. At the ceremony, Dr. Furth gave an address titled "Progress Toward a Fusion Energy Source."

The Plasma Physics lab's goal was to develop a new kind of electric power plant without the use of uranium, in order to reduce radioactive waste material produced by nuclear reactors. Furth was born in Vienna, Austria in 1930. He came to the United States in 1941 and received his doctoral degree from Harvard University. From 1956 to 1967 he worked on controlled fusion research at the Lawrence National Laboratory in California, and joined the faculty of Princeton in 1967 as a professor of astrophysical sciences and co-head of the Plasma Physics Laboratory's Experimental Diversion. He was named director of the laboratory in 1981 and has served on panels for the Department of Energy, NASA, the Department of Defense, the National Academy of Science, and published over 140 technical papers and holds around 20 patents.