Local Hotels

If you are a visitor to campus, you can click the hotel links below to make a reservation. Most area hotels offer discounted rates for visitors. Rates for visitors may vary from those negotiated for University business. The links below will direct you to a third-party site not affiliated with the University.

• DoubleTree by Hilton

• Marriott Forrestal Village

• Peacock Inn

• Hyatt Regency

• Homewood Suites

• Residence Inn

• Nassau Inn

• Courtyard by Marriott

Parking for the event is available in the Stadium Drive Garage on the Princeton University main campus. Guests are encouraged to claim a parking permit in advance here. Upon arrival, guests are permitted to park anywhere within the garage. Guests can use Tiger Transit to ride the bus to the Goheen Walk stop or walk from the Stadium Drive Garage to the venue Lewis Science Library. 

15 Most Impactful Publications

1. "Turbulent Transport Reduction by Zonal Flows: Massively Parallel Simulations"
   Z Lin, TS Hahm, WW Lee, WM Tang, RB White
   SCIENCE 281, 1835 (1998)

Animation showing zonal flows breaking up radial streamers

Perspective:

Global gyrokinetic simulations of ion temperature gradient (ITG) instability in tokamak plasmas reported in this paper demonstrate conclusively the nature of turbulence self-regulation by spontaneously-generated ExB zonal flows. Simulation results resolve this outstanding controversy in plasma transport theory and help establish a new paradigm of plasma self-organization via zonal flows as the mechanism for transitions to various forms of enhanced confinement regimes. This seminal article has inspired not only intense theoretical studies of zonal flow physics but also experimental searches for the signatures of zonal flows in the world fusion program. Zonal flow physics has remained a very active research topic for more than two decades after the publication of this paper, which – with over 1100 current citations -- has become one of the most referenced technical papers in fusion plasma physics. The associated impact has extended well beyond the fusion community in that such simulations with unprecedented resolution and realism have served as an excellent demonstration of the effective utilization of the then-emerging capability of massively parallel supercomputers. With over 400 citations, this review achieved a unique status with concise and insightful summaries, particularly of trapped-particle instabilities that came from Prof. Tang's many original contributions.  Moreover, the paper heralded the welcome arrival of high performance computing (HPC) as a powerful tool, complementing theory and experiment for scientific discovery in plasma physics and fusion energy research.

As affirmed by lead author Zhihong Lin, Prof. Tang provided the key analytical theory basis and was the senior corresponding author with Science on this paper,  Moreover, his physics insights guiding the overall research direction and the interpretation of the simulation results. His vision and enthusiasm for efficient engagement of  the power of the then-emerging high performance computing capability served to help accelerate scientific discovery.  Shortly after the publication of this paper, Prof. Tang led the creation in 2000 and the associated execution over the following decade of the fusion component of the US DOE Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program -- widely regarded as the most successful interdisciplinary HPC program that has profoundly shaped the worldwide landscape of scientific computing.

2. "Predicting Disruptive Instabilities in controlled fusion plasmas through Deep Learning"
   J Kates-Harbeck, A Svyatkovskiy, W Tang
   NATURE 568, 526 (2019)

Perspective:

High performance computing (HPC) advances in the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled software became increasingly  visible with the recent publication of Princeton’s Fusion Recurrent Neural Network code (FRNN) that uses convolutional & recurrent neural network components to integrate both spatial and temporal information for predicting dangerous disruptive events in tokamak plasmas with unprecedented accuracy and speed on top supercomputers – including  SUMMIT – the world’s #1 system in 2019.   This seminal accomplishment first appeared on April 25, 2019 in the top scientific journal NATURE, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1116-4, p. 526-531.  Statistical deep learning/AI software trained on huge observational data sets from the well-vetted disruption-relevant databases on the EUROFUSION/JET and DIII-D tokamak systems demonstrated the exciting promise for delivering much-needed predictive tools capable of accelerating scientific knowledge discovery. In particular, this advance was viewed as being especially relevant to ITER – the $25B international burning plasma experiment with the potential to exceed “breakeven” fusion power by a factor of 10 or more.  The associated challenge demands accuracy and speed beyond the near-term reach of extreme-scale computing simulations that has dominated current research and development in Plasma Physics/FES.  The approach introduced by Bill Tang and his young colleagues has dramatically improved predictions to reach the better than 95% accuracy needed to provide sufficient warning for avoidance/ mitigation methods to be applied before ITER can be critically damaged.  The work was featured in NATURE because the quest for limitless clean energy via fusion -- one of the world’s most prominent grand challenges – benefited significantly from this seminal effort in successfully using the powerful deep learning/AI approach to accelerate predictive progress crucial for success,

The associated creative methods have continued to be developed by the Princeton U./PPPL team led by Bill Tang to move forward from accurate predictive capabilities to real-time plasma control. Such investigations have significant potential for cross-cutting benefit to a number of important application areas in science and industry.  The NATURE paper, which highlighted the timely emergence of the major growth area of AI/DL/ML with an exemplar from Plasma Physics/FES, is the most recent example of Prof. Tang's pioneering scientific leadership

3. "Kinetic Ballooning Mode Theory in General Geometry"
   W.M. Tang, J.W. Connor, R. J. Hastie
   NUCLEAR FUSION 20, 1439 (1980)

Perspective:

This seminal paper is recognized as the first paper on kinetic ballooning mode (KBM) stability in toroidal geometry.  It provided the first systematic analytic derivation of this key topic.  The KBM is now believed to be the most prominent instability to impact achieving high confinement mode (H-mode) performance in tokamak plasmas.  In particular, KBM’s are expected to play an important role in determining the critical height of the H-mode plasma pressure pedestal.  Even with impressive advances in nonlinear gyrokinetic simulation capability of electromagnetic instabilities, the KBM remains a topic of active forefront research – thereby affirming the lasting impact of this 1980 pioneering work with the formulation and calculations led by Bill Tang.

4. "Microinstability Theory in Tokamaks" -- Review Paper
   W. M. Tang
   NUCLEAR FUSION 18 (8), 1089 (1978)

Perspective:

This review article summarized significant progress in tokamak microinstability theory covering the period from 1970 through 1977.  It has since achieved a unique status in the magnetic fusion energy (MFE) research community as a clear and comprehensive guide for further research activities on this challenging subject for more than two decades until a subsequent prominent review [W. Horton, Rev. Mod. Phys. 71, 735 (1999)] was published. Nevertheless, even now, Prof. Tang’s original paper remained a heavily referenced (over 400 citations) very valuable resource with concise and insightful summaries, in particular on trapped particle instabilities for which the author has made numerous impressive original contributions.  A remarkable aspect of this review is that it was written well before very useful standard tools such as ballooning mode formalism [J. Connor et al., Proc. R. Soc. 365, 1 (1979)], nonlinear gyrokinetic equations [E.A. Frieman and L. Chen, Phys. Fluids 25, 502 (1982)], and gyrokinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation method [W.W. Lee, Phys. Fluids 26, 556 (1983)] were established.  In addition, PIC simulations on microinstabilities by pioneers including J.M. Dawson, H. Okuda, and C. Z. Cheng and experimental measurements of density fluctuations associated with microturbulence by E. Mazzucato, C.M. Surko and R.E. Slusher were just beginning to emerge around 1976. Considering the challenge to properly classify and explain such a large variety of important emerging results and also effectively highlighting the solid and significant works in that time frame with potential long-term impacts was indeed a formidable accomplishment.   This seminal review paper provided a clear vision as well as enormously influenced the  eventual  development of tokamak microinstability research over the years.

5. "Improved Plasma Performance in Tokamaks with Negative Magnetic Shear"
   C. Kessel, J. Manickam, G. Rewoldt, W.M. Tang
   PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 72 (8), 1212 (1994)

Perspective:

This high-impact Phys. Rev. Letter with over 475 citations highlighted the contribution of Bill Tang together with his close collaborative colleague Greg Rewoldt in delivering a realistic theoretical prediction well before actual experimental validation a year or more later of the important result that microturbulence could be mostly eliminated in the negative central magnetic shear region of tokamak plasmas with associated improved confinement.   This seminal work reported on the identification of a negative magnetic shear tokamak configuration with a peaked pressure profile capable of achieving significantly improved performance.  A large ratio of non-inductive bootstrap current, excellent stability to high-n ballooning modes, and suppression of toroidal drift-type instabilities were demonstrated with this suggested target configuration that was subsequently validated in tokamak experiments.   This was the first  demonstration via advanced computations of simultaneously achieving these three desirable tokamak properties.  It also introduced the innovative possibility of enhancing plasma confinement with an internal transport barrier (ITB) in negative magnetic shear plasmas.  In particular, the actual validation came one year later when ITB plasmas with negative magnetic shear were experimentally demonstrated in TFTR [F.M. Levinton et al., Phys. Rev. Lett, 75, 4417 (1995)] and DIII-D [E.J. Strait et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4421 (1995)].  This was further confirmed on other major tokamak systems, including JT-60 in Japan.

6. "Observation of a High-Density Ion Mode in Tokamak Microturbulence"
   DL Brower, WA Peebles, SK Kim, NC Luhmann Jr, WM Tang
   PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 59, 48 (1987)

Perspective:

This was a seminal paper with nearly 150 citations that delivered the first substantive experimental evidence for the presence of Ion Temperature Gradient (ITG) modes.  In particular, high-density Ohmic discharges in the TEXT (Texas Experimental) tokamak at UT Austin were carefully measured with the associated discovery of a distinct ion mode (i.e., density fluctuations propagating in the ion diamagnetic drift direction) in the microturbulence spectra.  The magnitude and spectral characteristics of this mode were identified, and the onset of this ion feature were found to occur at plasma densities where a clear saturation was evident on a global energy-confinement time scale (τE).  These studies helped establish the possible connection between this experimentally observed “ion mode” and the theoretically predicted properties of instabilities driven by ion temperature gradient (ηi) – thereby confirming Bill Tang’s original suggestion that a systematic application of appropriate diagnostics to this problem would prove successful.  It also served as a “stimulus” of major importance that led to more comprehensive studies such as Bill’s subsequent productive collaboration with Wendell Horton and Duk-in Choi on “Toroidal Drift Modes Driven by Ion Pressure Gradients” [Physics of Fluids, 24 (8) , 1077 (1981)] – a heavily cited pioneering theory paper on ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence in toroidal geometry.  This is another compelling example of Bill’s excellent in-depth understanding of theoretical and computational R&D foundations – just as the aforementioned ITG measurement work exemplifies his passion for/insistence on experimental validation of significant theoretical explanations proposed for important observed plasma behavior. 

7. "Extreme Scale Plasma Turbulence Simulations on Top Supercomputers Worldwide,"
   W. Tang, B. Wang, S. Ethier, et al.
   SC'16 Proceeding of the International Conference for High Performance Computing

Perspective:

This paper carries special significance because it represents a prominent step forward in the acceptance of plasma physics/fusion energy science as a front-line HPC application domain. Being chosen for oral presentation at SC’2016 – recognized as the most prominent HPC conference worldwide with over 10,000 participants – was a major achievement involving an intensely competitive peer-review process. The goal of the extreme scale plasma turbulence studies described in this paper was to expedite the delivery of reliable predictions on confinement physics in large magnetic fusion systems by using world-class supercomputers to carry out simulations with unprecedented resolution and temporal duration. This involved architecture-dependent optimizations of performance scaling and addressing code portability and energy issues, with the metrics for multi-platform comparisons being “time-to-solution” and “energy-to-solution”. Realistic results addressing how confinement losses caused by plasma turbulence scaled from present-day devices to the targeted much larger $25B ITER fusion facility were enabled by innovative advances in the modern GTC-Princeton (GTC-P) code – a streamlined reduced version of the comprehensive GTC code.

Bill Tang provided the vision and leadership for the talented interdisciplinary computational science expert team that included Bei Wang of Princeton U. as Chief Architect, Stephane Ethier, Principal Computational Scientist at PPPL, Sam Williams (LBNL), Torsten Hoefler (ETH-Zurich), and others to produce GTC-P – an internationally well-established PIC code that has demonstrated excellent performance scalability and portability on top supercomputing systems worldwide.  It is also notable that GTC-P was previously featured (2011-2014) as the US flagship code in the G8 Exascale Project in nuclear fusion energy research (NuFuSE) for which Bill was the US PI in a productive multi-national partnership that included the UK, Germany, France, Japan, and Russia.

8. "Microinstability-based Model for Anomalous Thermal Confinement in Tokamaks”
   WM Tang
   NUCLEAR FUSION 26, 1605 (1986)

Perspective:

Since purely local diffusion coefficients from drift wave turbulence scale with a power of temperature, they will generally decrease as a function of increasing plasma radius --  in clear disagreement with observations  from tokamak experiments.  In addressing this issue, Bill Tang  combined conventional theoretical understanding with  physics insights from the “principle of profile consistency” introduced by Bruno Coppi into a novel transport model  that provided an early  explanation on how drift wave turbulence from instabilities associated with trapped electron  and ion temperature gradient driving mechanisms could lead to energy confinement scalings close to many observed  experimental trends when reasonable global constrains on current and electron temperature profiles were used.   In numerous subsequent modeling studies, this profile-constrained microinstability model [145 citations] was successfully applied with results that replicated important anomalous energy confinement trends observed in tokamak plasmas that featured profile-consistent behavior.  These included the neo-Alcator scaling for low density Ohmic heating experiments and the current scaling for auxiliarily heated L-mode plasmas.

9. "Toroidal Drift Modes Driven by Ion Pressure Gradients"
   W. Horton Jr., D.I. Choi, W. M. Tang
   PHYSICS OF FLUIDS, 24 (8) , 1077 (1981)

Perspective:

This work is widely recognized as a pioneering theory paper on ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence in toroidal geometry.  While toroidal ITG turbulence is now considered the leading candidate for anomalous ion thermal transport in tokamak systems, back in the early 80’s there were a number of other candidates.  Specifically, not until the 90’s, when accurate ion temperature profile measurements of tokamak plasmas emerged to enable realistic estimates for ion heat transport, did it become generally recognized in the community – as attested to by the fact that this paper now has 337 citations – that this paper not only derived reliable and detailed eigenmode structure and growth rate for the ITG instability in toroidal geometry, but also provided the first-principles basis for the so-called “gyro-Bohm quasilinear transport scaling trends,” which remains today as the prevailing finding from local nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations.

10. "Toroidal Electron Temperature Gradient Driven Drift Modes"
    W. Horton, B.G. Hong, W.M. Tang
    PHYSICS OF FLUIDS 31 (10), 2971 (1988)

Perspective:

This paper is well recognized with over 270 citations as the first to propose the existence of electron temperature gradient (ETG) modes in tokamak plasmas.  It reported on ETG eigenmode properties and the associated quasilinear transport.   Although electrostatic modes at short electron gyroradius scale are linearly most unstable, the electron heat transport produced is too low to be relevant to experiments.  However, this original work did stimulate subsequent important findings with possible experimental relevance of ETG modes and their influenced on anomalous electron heat transport.  In particular, electromagnetic (finite beta) modes at longer collisionless skin depth scales can be enhanced from nonlinear mode couplings with these shorter wavelength ETG modes. This can lead to electron heat flux at the level of experimental relevance.  Associated scaling trends are similar to the neo-Alcator scaling for low density Ohmic plasmas and also compatible with the observation of reduced transport in the core region of H-mode plasmas, despite the presence of large electron temperature gradients .

11. "Generalized Gyrokinetics"
    P.J. Catto, W.M.Tang, D.E. Baldwin
    PLASMA PHYSICS 23 (7) 639 (1981)

Perspective:

Linear gyrokinetic theories were first developed in pioneering studies by Rutherford-Frieman and Taylor-Hastie in 1968.  More than a decade later, Peter Catto and Bill Tang creatively introduced a totally different formal mathematical approach of transforming independent phase-space variables from particle coordinates to guiding center coordinates before taking the gyro-phase average of the resultant Vlasov equation.  The high impact of this "generalized gyrokinetics" paper with over 300 citations that emerged was widely recognized as a practical approach that was more transparent and less cumbersome than previous formal methods.  An especially prominent example is that it was featured in the pioneering gyrokinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations by W.W. Lee [Phys. Fluids 26, 556 (1983).  In addition, a precise calculation of higher order terms of the magnetic moment has made the linear electromagnetic gyrokinetic formulation here applicable to a wider class of equilibrium distribution functions. 

12. "Size Scaling of Turbulent Transport in Magnetically Confined Plasmas"
    Z. Lin,  S. Ethier, T. S. Hahm, W. M. Tang
    PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 88 (19) 195004 (2002)

Perspective:

Device size scaling of turbulent transport provides a physics foundation for the predictive extrapolation of plasma confinement properties from present-day tokamaks to larger fusion devices such as ITER. Due to constraints imposed by the cost of large-scale computing power, many first-principles simulations were performed in the small plasma domain (“local simulations”) with a built-in size scaling of turbulent transport (the so-called “gyro-Bohm" scaling). This seminal paper approaching nearly 300 citations was recognized as a major breakthrough in global gyrokinetic simulations because it demonstrated that transport driven by ion temperature gradient (ITG) turbulence actually exhibits a gradual transition of device size scaling from the so-called “Bohm” to “gyroBohm” regimes -- which is in qualitative agreement with the experimentally-observed confinement scaling trend on existing large tokamaks such as JET.  This impressive finding attracted strong attention because of favorable implications for confinement trends when extrapolated to ITER. This transition was subsequently shown by simulation and theory to arise from turbulence spreading -- a concept that quickly became a hot topic in plasma transport theory, including being incorporated in reduced transport models such as GLF23.

These nonlinear plasma physics simulations were the first to be carried out on tera-scale massively parallel computers – the innovative approach born from Prof. Tang’s vision for harnessing HPC power to enable scientific discovery. The robustness of this vision was confirmed by the fact that the simulation results originally reported here were subsequently confirmed by other major gyrokinetic codes nearly a decade after the publication of this paper.

13. "Gyrokinetic Particle Simulation of Neoclassical Transport"
    Z. Lin, W.M.Tang, W.W. Lee
    PHYSICS OF PLASMAS, 2 (8) 2975 (1995)

Perspective:

Coulomb collisions are well understood to provide a fundamental relaxation process toward thermal equilibrium – as well as setting an irreducible minimum level of transport in magnetically confined plasmas. This paper reported a particle simulation method to accurately calculate the collisional transport in toroidal plasmas (so called “neoclassical transport”), The associated simulation model is now widely adopted (over 165 citations) in the fusion community. An application of this powerful tool has subsequently led to an important extension of the standard neoclassical transport theory to reconcile with experimental observations in fusion plasmas [Z. Lin et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 456 (1997)]. The neoclassical model first described in this paper was further developed and then integrated into the powerful electromagnetic GTC simulation code -- currently recognized as one of the most productive modern exascale-capable fusion codes. As the adviser to Zhihong Lin -- his former PhD student at Princeton U. -- Prof. Tang played a central role in this paper by providing guidance on the research direction, formulation of the simulation model, and interpretation of simulation results.  

14. "Gyrokinetic Particle Simulation of Ion Temperature Gradient Drift Instabilities"
    W.W. Lee, W.M. Tang
    PHYSICS OF FLUIDS, 31 (3) 612 (1988)

Perspective:

This pioneering paper was the first gyrokinetic particle-in-cell simulation of one of the most important microinstabilities in magnetized plasmas.  These investigations of ion temperature gradient (ITG) drift instabilities were motivated by the need to identify the mechanisms responsible for their nonlinear saturation as well as the associated anomalous transport.  Since powerful massively parallel HPC capabilities would not emerge until another decade or so later, it was necessary for tractability and simplicity at that time  to carry out the simulation with  a shear‐free slab geometry, where the background pressure gradient was held fixed in time to represent the kind of quasi-static profiles typical of actual tokamak discharges.  Results indicated that the nonlinearly generated zero‐frequency responses for the ion parallel momentum and pressure appeared to be the dominant mechanisms giving rise to saturation of the growing electrostatic waves. This was supported by the excellent agreement between the simulation results and those obtained from analytic mode‐coupling calculations of the saturation amplitude and the quasilinear thermal diffusivity.

Wei-li Lee is of course recognized today as the creator of the gyrokinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation method [W.W. Lee, Phys. Fluids 26, 556 (1983)].  This early collaborative work with Bill Tang is an example of their productive partnership that continued to grow over the years with delivery of many more HPC-enabled discovery science simulation results together with their stimulating joint-mentorship of talented young scientists – with Prof. Zhihong Lin being a prominent example.

15. "Comparison of Initial Value and Eigenvalue Codes for Kinetic Toroidal Plasma Instabilities"
    Mike Kotschenreuther, G. Reworld, W.M.Tang
    COMPUTER PHYSICS COMMUNICATIONS 88 (2-3), 128 (1995)

Perspective:

As strong research interest on the subject of plasma microinstabilities in toroidal magnetic systems continued to grow in the 1990’s, there was also an increasing level of debate about what the most appropriate numerical methods should be applied.  In plasma physics, linear instability calculations can be implemented either as initial value calculations or as eigenvalue calculations.  Rather than entering into a fractious dispute, Bill Tang as the Head of PPPL’s Theory Department that featured the eigenmode studies at that time pro-actively reached out to Mike Kotschenreuher, the leading advocate for initial value codes  at the Institute for Fusion Studies, UT Austin  to engage in a collaborative investigation focused on a systematic comparisons between comprehensive linear gyrokinetic calculations employing the ballooning formalism for high-n (toroidal mode number) toroidal instabilities with (i) Kotschenreuther’s IFS code implementing an initial value calculation on a grid using a Lorentz collision operator and (ii) a PPPL code (from Greg Rewoldt and Bill Tang) implementing an eigenvalue calculation with basis functions using a Krook collision operator. An electrostatic test case with artificial parameters for the toroidal drift mode destabilized by the combined effects of trapped particles and an ion temperature gradient was then carefully analyzed both in the collisionless limit and with varying collisionality.  Results from applied studies using parameters from the then-prominent Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) experiment were obtained and compared -- with the very positive outcome being that good agreement was found!

This highly successful collegial investigation was published promptly in the peer-reviewed Computer Physics Communications journal.  It was a tremendously well-received article with over 700 subsequent citations – recognizing the work to be a rigorous verification of the complementarity of initial value and eigenvalue computational approaches for dealing with kinetic instabilities in toroidal plasmas.

Prof. William M. (Bill) Tang of Princeton University is Lecturer with Rank of Professor in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. He is also Participating Faculty at the Center for Statistics and Machine Learning, Executive Committee member for the Princeton Institute for Computational Science & Engineering (PICSciE), and Principal Research Physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the DOE national laboratory for Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy research -- where he served as Chief Scientist from 1997 to 2009. He was also the PI for the Intel Parallel Computing Center of Excellence awarded to “PICSciE” at Princeton University (2014-2018).

Prof. Tang is internationally recognized for his distinguished record of scientific achievements over 40 years, including peer-reviewed publications highlighting physical science discoveries, mathematical physics formalism, and associated innovative computational applications dealing with electromagnetic kinetic plasma behavior in complex geometries – that presently include over 200 papers in Nature, Science, Phys. Rev. Letters, Phys. Fluids/Plasmas, Nuclear Fusion, etc. and an “h-index” or “impact factor” of 64 on Google Scholar Citations, including 17,500 total citations

A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Dr. Tang has been honored with awards including NVIDIA Corporation’s 2018 Global Impact Award “for groundbreaking work in using GPU-accelerated computing to unleash deep learning neural networks for dramatically increasing the accuracy and speed in predicting dangerous disruptions in fusion systems,” and most recently the IEEE Computer Society’s 2024 Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award – “for pioneering contributions to fusion energy research accelerated by high-performance computing and deep learning.” His scientific leadership roles include serving on the International Scientific Advisory Committee for Switzerland’s National Supercomputing Center (CSCS) where he is the current Chairman for their “PASC” Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Tang was also the Director of the US Plasma Science Advanced Computing Institute (PSACI) at PPPL for 7 years before then leading its transition into the FES/ASCR FSP Fusion Simulation Program -- a national multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team of plasma scientists, computer scientists, and applied mathematicians which delivered for DOE the associated FSP program definition and plan. From 2009 - 2012, he was appointed by then U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu to be the first FES scientist to serve on DoE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee (ASCAC).

Prior to the NVIDIA Global Impact Award (2018) and the very recent 2024 IEEE Computer Society’s 2024 Sidney Fernbach Memorial Award, Prof. Tang was also honored with “High Performance Computing (HPC) Innovation Excellence Award” from the International Data Corporation (IDC) “for using high-end supercomputing resources to carry out advanced simulations for the first time of confinement physics in large-scale magnetic fusion energy (MFE) plasmas with unprecedented phase-space resolution and long temporal duration to deliver important new scientific insights.”

It is especially important to highlight the Artificial Intelligence/Deep Learning Project that produced the high-profile publication in NATURE (April, 2019) on “Disruptive Instabilities in Controlled Fusion Plasmas Through Deep Learning” -- a seminal contribution of the first US FES AI/DL/code validated vs. extensive experimental data and highlighted the timely emergence of the major R&D growth area of AI/DL/ML with the grand challenge exemplar of clean energy via magnetic fusion. This example of Tang’s pioneering scientific leadership in FES is also reminiscent of his key role in mentoring and participating in the high-profile breakthrough PIC simulation Science paper in 1998 on “Turbulent Transport Reduction by Zonal Flows: Massively Parallel Simulations” led by his former PhD student Prof. Zhihong Lin of UC Irvine which ushered in the emergence of plasma physics/FES as a major tool for scientific discovery using high performance computing. He was also the Director and Principal Investigator (PI) of the Intel Parallel Computing Center that was awarded to Princeton University’s “PICSciE” – the interdisciplinary institute for computational science & engineering that he helped co-found (2010), served as Associate Director (2003-2009), and continues the current Executive Board. Prof. Tang is currently the PI of the Early Science Project (ESP) on “Accelerated Deep Learning Discovery in Fusion Energy Science” that was selected for Argonne National Laboratory’s AURORA Exascale system.

Regarding academic contributions, Prof. Tang has taught for nearly 40 years at Princeton U. and has supervised numerous Ph.D. students, including recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers in 2000 (Prof. Zhihong Lin of Astrophysics and Astronomy at UC-Irvine) and in 2005 (Prof. Hong Qin of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University). Moreover, he has personally mentored/supervised -- outstanding recipients from DOE-SC’s premier Computational Science Graduate Fellowship Program, including Hal Finkel (Yale), Julian Kates-Harbeck (Harvard), Kyle Felker (Princeton), Jesse Rodriguez (Stanford), Ian Desjardin (Maryland), and currently Juan- Felipe Gomez (Harvard).

Dr. Tang is internationally recognized for his continuing contribution of new ideas which have fostered creativity and promoted cross-disciplinary fertilization in multiple areas of research and high-performance computing technology that have featured strong collaborative alliances between academia, laboratories, and prominent private sector companies including NVIDIA, MICROSOFT, GOOGLE, and HEWLETT-PACKARD. The academia aspect has come from his fundamental evolving contributions in educating a new generation of researchers for which he is a continuing example to emulate. Prof. Tang has supervised many prominent Ph.D. students that have included Profs. Zhihong Lin and Hong Qin as well as Mehmet Artun, Lei Shi, Leland Ellison, ... and postdocs including Greg Rewoldt, J.C. Adam, Swadesh Mahajan, Robert Laquey, Bruce Cohen, … in Plasma Physics/FES and Bei Wang, Kyle Felker, and Ge Dong in HPC, AI, ML, and AI. Moving into the future, they have all helped to productively and creatively accelerate significant scientific discovery while maintaining important connection to experimental validation, theoretical and computational verification, and statistical uncertainty quantification.