Marshall Rosenbluth, 76; UC San Diego Expert on Nuclear Fusion
Marshall Rosenbluth, 76, a UC San Diego expert on fusion energy whom colleagues dubbed “the pope of plasma physics,” died of cancer Sunday in San Diego.
Rosenbluth’s research spanned the history of fusion research, moving from his work in 1950 that led to development of the hydrogen bomb to subsequent exploration of peaceful uses for nuclear energy. Because of his prestige, UC San Diego became the headquarters in 1991 of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, a $1.2-billion international fusion research project, through which Rosenbluth and others hoped to provide a nearly inexhaustible pollution-free energy source.
President Clinton awarded the National Medal of Science to Rosenbluth in 1997. Among his other awards were the Albert Einstein Award, the James Clerk Maxwell Prize and the Enrico Fermi Award.
A native of Albany, N.Y., Rosenbluth earned his bachelor’s degree at Harvard and master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Chicago. He taught physics at Stanford, Princeton and the University of Texas in addition to UC San Diego, where he was on the faculty from 1960 to 1967 and from 1987 to 1993.
