currently leads the Large Plasma Device (LaPD) laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles. The original machine was funded by the Office of Naval Research and a major upgrade funded by the National Science Foundation. The LaPD is now a national user facility funded primarily by the Department of Energy office of Fusion Science. He and his students have worked on a number of problems related to space and solar physics. These include a variety of waves (Alfven, whistler, lower hybrid, Langmuir, ion acoustic) to name a few. Experiments on magnetic reconnection, processes in which magnetic energy is converted to other forms occur when magnetic ropes collide or in intense laser plasma interactions. Additional studies involve trapped particles in the earth’s radiation belts caused by ejection of plasma from the sun. In addition to the work on basic plasma physics he is engaged in a low temperature plasma physics program with industrial support from LAM research corporation, one the world’s biggest manufacturers of etch and deposition tools used by the semiconductor industry. For years now Prof. Gekelman has engaged in projects on the intersection of science and art with Prof. Victoria Vesna in the media arts department.
