Biography

Dr. Suxing Hu is a Distinguished Scientist and Group Leader of the High-Energy-Density Physics (HEDP) Theory Group at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE), University of Rochester. He is also jointly appointed as Professor of Physics (Research) and Professor of Mechanical Engineering (Research) at the University of Rochester. Research in his group has focused on the fundamental understanding of physics properties of matter under extreme conditions encountered in inertial-confinement fusion (ICF), planetary science, and astrophysics. Dr. Hu earned his PhD in physics from Chinese Academy of Sciences, at Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics. After graduation, he took the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and continued his theoretical AMO physics researches at University of Freiburg and Max-Born-Institute in Berlin, Germany. He moved to the US in 2001 as a postdoc research associate at University of Nebraska-Lincoln and later became a Director’s Postdoc Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He joined in Laboratory for Laser Energetics as a Scientist in 2006; was promoted to a Senior Scientist in 2013 and a Distinguished Scientist in 2019. He also held secondary appointment with Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of Rochester. As a theoretician, he is interested in understanding how matters behave at extreme conditions such as under ultra-high pressures and in super-strong/ultrafast laser fields. Dr. Hu was awarded the Hundred Outstanding Doctorate Thesis Prize from China’s Department of Education, the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, and Director’s Postdoc Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has published over 250 research articles, with over ~10000 citations and H-index = 54 by Google-Scholar so far. For his significant contribution to ultrafast attosecond physics, he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2013.

Research Overview

My current research focuses on the following four physics areas:

Theoretical/Computational High-Energy-Density Physics (HEDP): We are interested in the fundamental understanding of how matter behaves under extreme conditions (ρ=10^-1 ~ 10⁷ g/cm³ & T=10³~10¹⁰ K) widely existing in both laboratories and the universe. We perform first-principles investigations on the equation-of-state (EOS), transport properties, opacity, and stopping-power of materials at such extreme conditions through state-of-the-art methods, e.g., density-functional theory (DFT) based quantum molecular dynamics (QMD), orbital-free molecular dynamics (OFMD), path integral Monte-Carlo (PIMC), and quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC)  simulations. We are also exploring how Machine Learning and AI could help us understand HED physics better.

Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF): Implementing/Using accurate first-principles-based EOS, transport, opacity, and stopping-power models in radiation-hydrodynamics codes for reliable ICF simulations; designing/analyzing implosion experiments to understand and control Rayleigh–Taylor instability growth and thermal-nuclear burns in ICF targets through multidimensional radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. We are also interested in alternative ICF target designs with the ultimate goal of realizing fusion ignition in laboratories.

Computational physics: Developing time-dependent, real-space density functional theory (TD-DFT) codes for ab-initio studies of high-energy-density physics and chemistry; Exploring new rezoning/regriding strategies in Lagrangian hydrodynamics; Developing advanced finite-element algorithms for quantum simulations of many-body systems.

Ultrafast Dynamics & Attosecond Physics: Understanding the ultrafast (from attosecond to femtosecond time-scales) ionization and radiation in intense/ultrafast laser interactions with atoms, molecules, clusters, solids and plasmas.

Research Interests

• Theoretical/Computational High-Energy-Density Physics
• Inertial Confinement Fusion
• Warm-/Hot-Dense Matter
• Quantum Many-Body Physics
• Quantum Computing
• Intense Laser-Matter Interactions
• Ultrafast Dynamics
• Attosecond Physics
• Computational Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics

Selected Publications

Full Publication List on Google Scholar

• https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MZP-8HEAAAAJ&hl=en)