Henry Vernon Wong is a Jamaican-American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

known for his work in

plasma physics Plasma () is a state of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including th ...

. He is professor emeritus at the University of Texas, Austin.

Career

Wong's early education was at Cornwall College in

Montego Bay Montego Bay () is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth most populous urban area in the country, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Portmore ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

. He won a Jamaica Scholarship to the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

, graduating with a B.Sc. in physics in 1961. He obtained his D.Phil. in

Nuclear physics Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies th ...

from

Wadham College Wadham College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, a ...

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

in 1964. Wong remained at Oxford during 1964–1965 as a postdoctoral scholar. In 1965, he was the recipient of a CIBA Fellowship to continue his research at the

International Centre for Theoretical Physics The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) is a research center for physical and mathematical sciences, located in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The center operates under a tripartite agreement between the Gov ...

Trieste Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. The following year he joined the Laboratoria Gas Ionizzati in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. In 1967, Wong joined the Fusion Research Center (FRC) of the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

as a research scientist.

Awards and honors

*In 1961, Wong was awarded a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

*In 1988, He was elected fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

Selected publications

*Wong, H. Vernon. "Stability of Bernstein‐Greene‐Kruskal Wave with Small Fraction of Trapped Electrons" '' The Physics of Fluids'' 15, 632 (1972)
DOI:10.1063/1.1693958
*Wong, H. Vernon. "Sideband instabilities in free electron lasers" '' Physics of Fluids B: Plasma Physics'', 2 1635 (1990)
DOI:10.1063/1.859489
*Wong, H. Vernon. "Particle canonical variables and guiding center Hamiltonian up to second order in the Larmor radius" '' Physics of Plasmas'' 7, 73 (2000)
DOI:10.1063/1.873782
*Wong, H. Vernon. "Nonlinear finite-Larmor-radius drift-kinetic equation" '' Physics of Plasmas'' 12, 112305 (2005)
DOI:10.1063/1.2116867

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wong, Henry Vernon University of the West Indies alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Living people 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists Jamaican scientists Jamaican Rhodes Scholars Plasma physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society University of Texas at Austin faculty 1938 births Cornwall College, Jamaica alumni