ALEXANDER M BALK portrait
  • Professor, Mathematics

Research Summary

For many years I worked on applications of the extra invariant to facilitate nuclear fusion in plasmas confined by magnetic field. In 2023, I achieved my goal, to a large extent. Now I am working on a different problem: How can the turbulence of ocean surface waves organize itself to form highly anisotropic, almost unidirectional, turbulence spectrum? This phenomenon is contrary to our common sense (since the distribution of waves, directly generated by the wind, is quite isotropic).

Education

  • Ph.D., Physics and Mathematics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. Project: Stability Analysis of Weak Turbulence Kolmogorov Spectra, Advisor: Vladimir E. Zakharov

Biography

After studying in Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Computer Center of Russian Academy of Sciences, and Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics he obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1988.

Before becoming a professor of mathematics in the University of Utah, he worked in the Landau Institute for

Theoretical Physics (1988-1998), University of Arizona (1991-1993), California Institute of Technology (1993-1996), and  Institute for Advanced Study (2002-2003).

He published more than 50 research papers mostlty in the area of wave turbulence, with applications to ocean

dynamics, nuclear fusion, and astrophysics.