FEATURED AUTHOR
John A Swegle
John Swegle has enjoyed a broad and varied career in high-power microwaves. He has conducted detailed analyses of relativistic backward-wave oscillators and traveling-wave tubes; performed systems analyses of a wide range of HPM sources, pulsed-power elements, and full HPM systems; and taught short courses on the science and technology of HPM in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He is currently living in South Carolina.
Subjects: Engineering - Electrical, Physics
Biography
After a brief period in the aerospace industry, John Swegle changed his specialization from electrical engineering to plasma physics while obtaining Master's and Doctoral Degrees at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. After graduating, he joined the Plasma Theory Division at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he studied pulsed power technology, electron and ion beam generation and propagation, and backward-wave oscillators and traveling-wave tubes. In 1986, he moved to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, where he worked on a range of topics including high-power microwaves over the course of his 21-year career at the laboratory. During this time, he also continuously worked in the field of HPM as an independent consultant doing business as J-Two. John joined the Savannah River National Laboratory and moved to South Carolina in 2007, where he continues to enjoy a varied work portfolio that includes HPM, both in his work for the laboratory and as an independent consultant. Over the course of his career, he has served two terms as an Associate Editor of The Physics of Plasmas (1990-1995) and as Co-Editor of the Special Issue on High-Power Microwaves of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science (1992). He is also the 2012 winner of the Fred C. Davidson Distinguished Scientist Award of the Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness (Aiken, SC).Education
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BSEE, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1974
MSEE, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1975
MS in Applied Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1979
PhD in Applied Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1980
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
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HPM sources, pulsed power, and systems
Personal Interests
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Travel (having visited every one of the fifty states of the United States), reading, films, staying in contact with a widely dispersed group of family and friends