NEW YORK, NY, April 12, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Donald H. McNeill has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
By the age of 12, he was considering careers in medicine, foreign affairs, languages, and science. Inspired by Professor Harvey White and his television program "Atomic Age Physics" on "Continental Classroom," he resolved to pursue higher education in physics.
He graduated from Eckerd College with a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1966. At that time he received a Marshall Scholarship with which he studied for two years at Edinburgh University, receiving a B.Sc. Hons. in math and mathematical physics in 1968. He also travelled extensively during his time at Edinburgh, including an overland trip to India with Comex 2, led by Lionel Gregory. He then went to Columbia University, where he received a Ph.D. in physics in 1974 with research under Prof. Robert A. Gross in experimental plasma physics and a dissertation entitled "A Thomson scattering study of collisional-shock heated plasmas." While at Columbia he met the love of his life, Fannie Peczenik, a writer, linguist, and Ph.D. in English literature with whom he lived happily for 45 years.
His first post-doctoral work was at Oak Ridge National Laboratory until 1978. There he continued working with Thomson scattering and began work, independently and with colleagues, in various areas of spectroscopy and plasma heating which have interested him throughout this career. He then worked at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory until 1989, after which he became an independent consultant in various areas of plasma physics, instrumentation, spectroscopy, combustion, arms control, and scientific translation. He has worked on research grants from several government agencies. He spent 3 years at the ENEA fusion energy center in Frascati, Italy (1990-1993), as an independent consultant working on the FTU tokamak and held a National Research Council Senior Research Associateship at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (Pittsburgh, 2001-2) studying laser ignition of combustion.
He retains membership in the American Physical Society and various scientific societies and hopes to travel and learn additional languages in the near future.
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