Raymond L. Boxman

Dyke Award Recipient 2000

For his outstanding body of work in the field of electrical discharges in vacuum, in particular for his contributions to the physics, technology, and applications of vacuum arc plasmas.

Professor Raymond Boxman received the B.S. and S. M. degrees in electrical engineering in 1969 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, and the Ph.D. degree from MIT in 1973.  He was introduced to vacuum arcs, which became his career specialty, as a cooperative student at the General Electric Company, Philadelphia, PA, and the subject of triggered vacuum gaps became the topic of his S.M. thesis, while laser interferometric measurements of electron and vapor densities in a vacuum arc became the topic of his Ph.D. thesis.  He worked as a Senior Research Engineer at GE where he investigated the behavior of vacuum arcs in high current switches from 1973 to 1975, at which time he took a position with the Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.  He is the co-founder of the Electrical Discharge and Plasma Laboratory at TAU. He is now a professor at the Fleishman Faculty of Engineering, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, Tel Aviv University.

Raymond Boxman is the author or co-author of a very large number of often-quoted scientific papers on vacuum arcs and related topics.  He has also written several review articles and book chapters,  and he is one of the editors of "VAST", the "Handbook of Vacuum Arc Science and Technology", published by Noyes in 1995.  His publications are recognized within the community and they have made an impact on a whole generation of young physicists and engineers entering the field of electrical discharges in vacuum.
He pioneered spectroscopic plasma diagnostics applied to the expanding vacuum plasmas and developed models of plasma expansion and particle distribution.  He covered both plasma physical fundamentals and the applied side of this field.  Specifically, he was one of the first who systematically explored the potential of vacuum arc plasmas for thin film coatings, including hard protective coatings and optical coatings.  Part of the problem was to control the macroparticles which are produced at cathode spot.  Micron-size droplets or cathode debris particles are a deterrent for a number of thin films applications.  Under his leadership, a group of plasma physicists and engineers studied in detail the interaction of vacuum arc plasmas with macroparticles and the possibility of their removal by bent magnetic filters.

Dr. Boxman is also active in a number of Professional Societies; he serves on the Program Committee and is Session Chairman of the Hard Coatings and PVD Symposium of the International Conference on Metallurgical Coatings and Thin Films.  He has actively served for many years on the Permanent International Committee of the International Symposia on Discharges and Electrical Insulation in Vacuum.
In 1984, he and his colleagues were awarded the Joffee Foundation Award by the International Union of Surface Finishing.
 [©2000].

Prof. Boxman can be contacted via his web site http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/Users/boxman/index.html.
 

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