K. Beiersdorfer, PhD

Peter Beiersdorfer is a Physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he has built an internationally recognized program in laboratory astrophysics and high-temperature plasma spectroscopy. Beiersdorfer earned his undergraduate degree from Auburn University before completing his Ph.D. in plasma physics at Princeton University, where his fellowship began in 1983. His research at Livermore uses the EBIT (Electron Beam Ion Trap) facility to measure atomic processes at extremely high charge states—work directly applicable to interpreting X-ray spectra from astrophysical sources including galaxy clusters and stellar coronae. His measurements have been used to constrain the temperature and composition of plasma throughout the universe.