Stewart Prager is a professor emeritus of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University, an affiliated faculty member with the Program on Science and Global Security, and a co-founder of the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction. From 2009–2016, he was director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Prior to that, he was professor of physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was director of the Madison Symmetric Torus experimental program and director of the Center for Magnetic Self-Organization in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas, a multi-institutional NSF Physics Frontier Center. Prager received the Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics from the American Physical Society (APS) and the Leadership and Distinguished Career awards from Fusion Power Associates. His service has included chair of the Department of Energy Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, President of the University Fusion Association, chair of the APS Division of Plasma Physics, and chair of the APS Forum on Physics and Society. He holds a PhD in plasma physics from Columbia University.
Research Interests
Until 2018 Prager’s research was dedicated to plasma physics, with applications to fusion energy and, to a lesser extent, astrophysics. In 2018, his focus switched to nuclear security issues. His current activity is concentrated in the Physicists Coalition for Nuclear Threat Reduction – an organization to inform, engage and activate physicists on the issue of nuclear threat reduction. The national project was started at SGS in 2020.
Publications
The vast majority of publications are in the area of plasma physics and are not listed here.
S. Prager and A. Kaptanoglu, Rebuttal: Nuclear Weapons Policy not Safe nor Sane, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, May 24, 2022.
A. Kaptanoglu and S. Prager, US Defense to its Workforce: Nuclear War Can be Won, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, February 2, 2022.
A. Robock and S. Prager, Geoscientists Can Help Reduce the Threat of Nuclear Weapons, Eos (published by American Geophysical Union), December 2021.
Z. Mian, S. Prager, F. von Hippel, Once More Into the Breach: Physicists Mobilize Again to Counter the Nuclear Threat, Arms Control Today, May 2021.
C. Selton, Z. Mian, and S. Prager, Mobilizing Physicists for Nuclear Arms Control Advocacy, Physics and Society, 22, APS Forum on Physics and Society, October, 2020.
R. Goldston, Z. Mian, A. Nouri, S. Prager, P. G. Richards, A. Rosenberg, L. R. Sykes, and F. von Hippel, Scientists Must Rise in Defense of Democracy, Scientific American, October 2, 2020.
S. Prager, S. Fetter, A. Glaser, Z. Mian, S. Philippe, and F. von Hippel, The Increasing Peril of Nuclear Weapons: And How Physicists Can Help Reduce the Threat, APS News, July/August 2020.
S. Prager, S. Fetter, A. Glaser, Z. Mian, and F. von Hippel, Physicists Mobilize to Reduce the Nuclear Threat. Again, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, January 2020.