Qin awarded two research prizes

Princeton scientist Hong Qin has won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers as well as the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science Early Career Scientist and Engineer Award.

The presidential award is the nation's highest honor for scientists and engineers at the start of their independent-research careers, and provides five years of continued funding. Qin, a physicist at the DOE-sponsored Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, was one of 58 researchers to receive the honor, which is administered by the DOE and seven other federal departments and agencies.

Qin was among six researchers from DOE national laboratories to win both the presidential award and the DOE award.

The prize citations noted his contributions to the physics of high-intensity particle beams, with application to ion-beam fusion energy, and his work on the electromagnetic effects of magnetically confined plasmas, with application to magnetic fusion energy.

After receiving a B.S. and an M.S. in space physics from Beijing University, Qin came to Princeton University, where he earned a Ph.D. in astrophysical sciences in 1998. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Plasma Physics Lab, then joined its research staff in 2000.