IN MEMORIAM

Wulf Bernard Kunkel

Professor of Physics

UC Berkeley

1923-2013

Wulf B. Kunkel, emeritus professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, died in his sleep on September 3, 2013, at his home at the Lake Park Retirement Residence in Oakland. He was 90.

 

Kunkel was born in Eichenau (Oberbayern) Germany on February 6, 1923. He spent his formative years at the Quaker school Eerde in Holland where he fell in love with writing, directing, and acting in plays, to the point that it was difficult for him to decide between theater and another interest, physics. During World War II, he studied physics at the University of Amsterdam.

 

After the war, Kunkel came to Berkeley to study at the University of California where he received his B.A. and Ph.D. in Physics in 1948 and 1951. He stayed on, first at the Institute of Engineering Research, and then in 1956 joined the UC Radiation Laboratory (now Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, LBNL). That same year he was appointed Lecturer in the Physics Department at UC Berkeley. In 1967 he was promoted to Professor after turning down a Visiting Professorship offer from Cornell University. He established an undergraduate plasma course that he taught regularly, and was an outstanding teacher, supervising many doctoral students over the years.

 

He was a pioneer of the US fusion program and from 1971 to 1991 served as leader of the Fusion Research Program at LBNL. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was twice a Guggenheim Fellow (1955, 1972). In 1982 he received the Alexander von Humboldt Award awarded by Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars. He retired to emeritus status in 1991 and continued as a Participating Scientist in LBNL’s Accelerator and Fusion Research Division.

 

Kunkel’s research focused on astrophysics, basic aspects of plasma physics, controlled nuclear fusion power, developing novel powerful deuterium injectors for heating, ionization phenomena in gases, plasma in the large magnetic confinement fusion experiments, and space science. “Wulf specialized in the development of ion beams for plasma heating,” said his colleague, Alan Kaufman.

 

In the fall of 1961, Kunkel initiated and organized a series of technical lectures throughout the state of California on the extensive new developments in plasma physics, theoretical, experimental, and applied. The lectures were published in 1966 as Plasma Physics in Theory and Application (McGraw-Hill). He co-authored with Arthur Sherwood a technical pamphlet, Formative Time for Breakdown in Crossed Fields (Journal of Applied Physics, 1968) in 1968. His “Multimegawatt Neutral Beams for Tokamaks” (IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 26:3, 1979) describes the use and future of high-power neutral-beam injectors to heat plasma.

 

Kunkel loved Berkeley, but when not in Berkeley, he and his family enjoyed time at Sea Ranch and Pt. Reyes. He is survived by his wife Erika, three children, Laurence, Barbara, and Maya, his sister Mia and brother Bill, grandchildren Katia and Timothy Nonet, and son-in-law Michael Nonet. He was preceded in death by his brothers Peter and John.

 

 

Robert Littlejohn

Alan Kaufman