Biography
László Bardóczi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He assumed this role in January 2023 after serving as a scientist at General Atomics in San Diego, California, from 2018 to 2023. Bardóczi earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2017, where he researched neoclassical tearing modes and plasma turbulence under the supervision of Troy A. Carter. He also holds both a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Budapest University of Technology and Economics, completed in 2012 and 2010, respectively.
Bardóczi’s research focuses on plasma physics, particularly on neoclassical tearing modes and their interaction with plasma turbulence and magnetic islands. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Nuclear Fusion, Physics of Plasmas, and Physical Review Letters. His work has been recognized with several awards, including the Simonyi Károly Award for fusion energy research in 2018 and the Torkil Jensen Award for an innovative experimental science proposal in 2017. Bardóczi has also delivered invited talks at prominent conferences, such as the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics meetings.
At the University of California, Irvine, Bardóczi teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses, including "Plasma Instabilities" and "Physics for the Life Sciences." He has been involved in mentoring students and has served in various leadership roles, such as leading the Neoclassical Tearing Mode research group and acting as the lead magnetic diagnostician at General Atomics. Bardóczi also contributes to the scientific community by serving as a referee for several journals and participating in international collaborations focused on plasma stability and fusion energy research.
Return to topEducation
- Ph.D. in Physics, University of California Los Angeles, 2017
- M.S. in Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary, 2012
- B.S. in Physics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary, 2010
Distinctions
- Simonyi Károly Award as recognition for activities in fusion energy research, Budapest, 2018
- Torkil Jensen Award for Innovative Experimental Science Proposal for DIII-D, General Atomics, 2017
- Snyder Award of the Best Theory-Experiment Comparison, General Atomics, 2016
- Best Student Presentation Prize, Transport Task Force Workshop, Denver, 2016
- Graduate Student Research Fellowship, UCLA, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 2012-2017
- Best Student of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, 2010
- The Most Successful Student Researcher, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, 2009
Areas of Expertise
- Plasma Physics
- Neoclassical Tearing Modes
- Magnetic Island Dynamics
- Fusion Energy Research
- Tokamak Plasma Experiments
- Plasma Confinement
- Turbulence in Fusion Plasmas
- Fast Ion Transport
- Magnetic Diagnostics
- Electron Cyclotron Current Drive
Recent Publications
- Bardóczi L., Dudkovskaia A., Logan N.C., Richner N.J., Brown A.C., Callen J.D., La Haye R.J., Strait E.J., “Tearing stable stationary ITER baseline operation in DIII-D” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 65, 2025.
- L. Bardóczi, A. Dudkovskaia, R.J. La Haye, J.D. Callen, C. Chrystal, “Perturbed Ion Temperature and Toroidal Flow Profile Measurements in Rotating Neoclassical Tearing Mode Magnetic Islands” (opens in new tab), Physical Review Letters, vol. 132, no. 6, pp. 065107, 2024.
- E. Jung, L. Bardóczi, M.E. Austin, S.H. Son, A.H. Reiman, “Reconstruction of magnetic island electron temperature in mixed second and third harmonic electron cyclotron emission conditions” (opens in new tab), Review of Scientific Instruments, vol. 95, no. 6, 2024.
- N.J. Richner, L. Bardóczi, J.D. Callen, R.J. La Haye, N.C. Logan, E.J. Strait, “Use of differential plasma rotation to prevent disruptive tearing mode onset from 3-wave coupling” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 64, no. 10, pp. 106036, 2024.
- Yang, E.D. Fredrickson, Q. Hu, M. Podestà, J.W. Berkery, L. Bardóczi, “Measurement of small island characteristics using high resolution ECE and CER at DIII-D” (opens in new tab), Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, vol. 66, no. 10, pp. 105017, 2024.
- L. Bardóczi, R.J. La Haye, E.J. Strait, N.C. Logan, S.P. Smith, N.J. Richner, “Direct preemptive stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes by electron cyclotron current drive in the DIII-D low-torque ITER baseline scenario” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 63, no. 9, pp. 096021, 2023.
- L. Bardóczi, N.J. Richner, J. Zhu, C. Rea, N.C. Logan, “Empirical probability and machine learning analysis of m, n= 2, 1 tearing mode onset parameter dependence in DIII-D H-mode scenarios” (opens in new tab), Physics of Plasmas, vol. 30, no. 9, 2023.
- L. Bardóczi, N.J. Richner, N.C. Logan, “The onset distribution of rotating tearing modes and its consequences on the stability of high-confinement- mode plasmas in DIII-D” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 63, no. 12, pp. 126052, 2023.
- M.E. Fenstermacher, J. Abbate, S. Abe, T. Abrams, M. Adams, B. Adamson, L. Bardóczi, “DIII-D research advancing the physics basis for optimizing the tokamak approach to fusion energy” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 62, no. 4, pp. 042024, 2022.
- L. Bardóczi, T.E. Evans, “Experimental Observation of Magnetic Island Heteroclinic Bifurcation in Tokamaks” (opens in new tab), Physical Review Letters, vol. 126, no. 8, pp. 085003, 2021.
- L. Bardóczi, T.E. Evans, “Experimental signatures of electron cyclotron wave energy condensation in magnetic islands” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 61, no. 7, pp. 074001, 2021.
- L. Bardóczi, N.C. Logan, E.J. Strait, “Neoclassical Tearing Mode Seeding by Nonlinear Three-Wave Interactions in Tokamaks” (opens in new tab), Physical Review Letters, vol. 127, no. 5, pp. 055002, 2021.
- M.J. Choi, L. Bardóczi, J.M. Kwon, T.S. Hahm, H.K. Park, J. Kim, M. Woo, “Effects of plasma turbulence on the nonlinear evolution of magnetic island in tokamak” (opens in new tab), Nature Communications, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 375, 2021.
- M.A. Van Zeeland, L. Bardoczi, J. Gonzalez-Martin, W.W. Heidbrink, “Beam modulation and bump-on-tail effects on Alfvén eigenmode stability in DIII-D” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 61, no. 6, pp. 066028, 2021.
- Bardóczi L., Evans T.E., “Experimental inference of flux tunneling between magnetic island chains in tokamaks” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 61, 2021.
Most Cited Publications
- L. Bardóczi, T.L. Rhodes, T.A. Carter, A. Banon Navarro, W.A. Peebles, “Modulation of core turbulent density fluctuations by large-scale neoclassical tearing mode islands in the DIII-D tokamak” (opens in new tab), Physical Review Letters, vol. 116, no. 21, pp. 215001, 2016.
- L. Bardóczi, T.L. Rhodes, T.A. Carter, N.A. Crocker, W.A. Peebles, B.A. Grierson, “Non-perturbative measurement of cross-field thermal diffusivity reduction at the O-point of 2/1 neoclassical tearing mode islands in the DIII-D tokamak” (opens in new tab), Physics of Plasmas, vol. 23, no. 5, 2016.
- Navarro A., Bardóczi L., Carter T., Jenko F., Rhodes T., “Effect of magnetic islands on profiles, flows, turbulence and transport in nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations” (opens in new tab), Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, vol. 59, 2017.
- L. Bardóczi, T.L. Rhodes, A. Bañón Navarro, C. Sung, T.A. Carter, R.J. La Haye, “Multi-field/-scale interactions of turbulence with neoclassical tearing mode magnetic islands in the DIII-D tokamak” (opens in new tab), Physics of Plasmas, vol. 24, no. 5, pp. 056106, 2017.
- W.W. Heidbrink, L. Bardóczi, C.S. Collins, G.J. Kramer, R.J. La Haye, D.J. Lin, “The phase-space dependence of fast-ion interaction with tearing modes” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 58, no. 8, pp. 082027, 2018.
- L. Bardóczi, T.A. Carter, R.J. La Haye, T.L. Rhodes, G.R. McKee, “Impact of neoclassical tearing mode–turbulence multi-scale interaction in global confinement degradation and magnetic island stability” (opens in new tab), Physics of Plasmas, vol. 24, no. 12, 2017.
- L. Bardóczi, M. Podestà, W.W. Heidbrink, M.A. Van Zeeland, “Quantitative modeling of neoclassical tearing mode driven fast ion transport in integrated TRANSP simulations” (opens in new tab), Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, vol. 61, no. 5, pp. 055012, 2019.
- L. Bardóczi, T.L. Rhodes, T.A. Carter, R.J. La Haye, A. Bañón Navarro, “Shrinking of core neoclassical tearing mode magnetic islands due to edge localized modes and the role of ion-scale turbulence in island recovery in DIII-D” (opens in new tab), Physics of Plasmas, vol. 24, no. 6, 2017.
- E.M. Hollmann, N.W. Eidietis, J.L. Herfindal, P.B. Parks, A.Y. Pigarov, D. Shiraki, L. Bardóczi, “Study of argon assimilation into the post-disruption runaway electron plateau in DIII-D and comparison with a 1D diffusion model” (opens in new tab), Nuclear Fusion, vol. 59, no. 10, pp. 106014, 2019.
- S. Zoletnik, L. Bardóczi, A. Krämer-Flecken, Y. Xu, I. Shesterikov, S. Soldatov, “Methods for the detection of Zonal Flows using one-point and two-point turbulence measurements” (opens in new tab), Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 065007, 2012.
Contact Information
Website: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/lbardoczi/
Email: lbardocz@uci.edu
Address: Frederick Reines Hall – 4182 – Irvine, CA 92697
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Last updated on 2/14/2025.