Thomas Christos Katsouleas

Thomas Christos Katsouleas (known as "TomKat" by students) is an American physicist, engineer, and academic administrator who serves as the 16th president of the University of Connecticut, a position he assumed in August 2019. He holds a professorship in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department within the School of Engineering at UConn. Prior to his presidency, Katsouleas had a distinguished career in academia and research, with significant contributions to plasma physics and particle accelerator technology.

• Bachelor's degree from University of California, Los Angeles (1979)
• Ph.D. in Physics from UCLA (1984)

Katsouleas's research primarily focuses on plasma-based particle accelerators, exploring how plasmas can be used to accelerate particles to high energies with potential to lower costs of future high-energy colliders. His work spans both laser-driven and beam-driven plasma accelerators, building on his undergraduate research in this field. He has made significant contributions to high-power light sources development, holding a 1998 patent for a device generating adjustable, high-power radiation pulses with applications in communications, advanced radar, medicine, and research. As a global advocate, Katsouleas has substantially impacted optics and photonics research, education, outreach, and entrepreneurship.

Analysis of Katsouleas's recent publications reveals a clear trajectory toward extreme-field physics and nanoscale acceleration techniques. His work has evolved from traditional plasma wakefield acceleration to exploring plasmonic approaches capable of achieving Petavolts per meter gradients using structured semiconductors and nanomaterials. This represents a paradigm shift from gaseous plasmas to solid-state systems, opening new frontiers in particle acceleration. His research group has made significant contributions to understanding nonlinear plasma wakefield dynamics, beam loading effects, and stability issues in plasma accelerators, with recent focus on nanoplasmonic acceleration techniques that could revolutionize compact particle accelerator design.

Katsouleas founded the NAE Grand Challenges Summit in Durham in 2009 and initiated Duke's Katsouleas NAE Grand Challenge Scholars Program in 2010, which challenges students to apply their knowledge to solve National Academy of Engineering-identified global challenges. His leadership extends to major collaborative research initiatives including the COMPASS (COMmunity Petascale project for Accelerator Science and Simulation) project, which represents a broad computational accelerator physics initiative. As UConn's president, he continues to champion innovation in both academic administration and scientific research, bridging the gap between fundamental physics and practical engineering applications.