Alan Hoffman
Professor Emeritus
hoffman@aa.washington.edu
Office: Redmond Plasma Physics Lab
Phone: 425.881.3923
BS Engr-Physics, Cornell University
Professor Hoffman received a Bachelor's in Engineering-Physics from Cornell University in 1963 and obtained his doctorate degree in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology in 1967. After two years testing helicopters at Edwards Air Force Base, and a brief stint at Boeing Scientific Research Labs, he spent the next 22 years at Mathematical Sciences Northwest/Spectra Technology in Bellevue, WA. There he developed test facilities for high power gasdynamic lasers, performed research on laser heating of plasmas, and developed a research program in compact toroid confinement for magnetic fusion.
Dr. Hoffman joined the University of Washington in 1992 and brought with him a large compact toroid fusion facility which has been reassembled in a 7000 square foot off-campus laboratory facility. This facility is the largest of its type in the world and employs a full-time staff of twelve scientists, engineers, and technicians, in addition to many temporary workers, undergraduates and graduate students. Dr. Hoffman's research interests are in magnetic fusion, particularly novel approaches that could either improve tokamaks, or provide more attractive confinement geometries, and in plasma propulsion.