Brian Beaudoin Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer CAS | Physics
- Degrees
- PhD, MS, BS
- Favorite Spot on Campus
- where the wild things are
- Bio
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My research focuses on investigating the fundamental interactions between charged particles, electromagnetic radiation and materials. I am an experimental physicist particularly interested in systems involving electrons and ions, with applications ranging from ionospheric physics to materials processing.
Student Research
I have mentored many undergraduate students over the years, for both Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) funded by the National Sciences Foundation (NSF) as well as mentoring students in experimental and computational research projects in the laboratory funded by federal agencies such as: Department of Energy, Department of Defense, etc.
Current Research & Collaborations
My current research focuses on using scaled low-energy electron beams to cleverly access the intense, high-brightness, regime of beam operation in accelerators at a much lower cost than larger and more energetic machines. This concept allows one to experiment in pushing up the brightness of existing and future accelerators.
History
Before joining the AU faculty in 2025, I worked at the University of Maryland’s Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics for 15 years as an associate research professor. I have worked at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory as a visiting scholar and the Naval Research Laboratory as a scientist. I earned my PhD in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at UMD in advanced concepts for future particle accelerators. Since then, I have designed and built many fun scientific experimental devices.
Professional Service
In addition to serving as a Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer and associate research professor, I have served as an instructor for the United States Particle Accelerator School (USPAS). In addition, I continue to assist the Department of Energy as a proposal referee for Phase I and II SBIR/STTR proposals as well as assist various journals as a referee (Physical Review Letters, Physical Review Accel Beams, Physics of Plasmas and Nuclear Instruments and Methods)
- See Also
- Night at the Nevermore Hall
- For the Media
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Teaching
Fall 2025
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PHYS-310 Electronics
Spring 2026
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PHYS-440 Experimental Physics
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Research Interests
My research focuses on investigating the fundamental interactions between charged particles, electromagnetic radiation and materials. Particularly interested in systems involving electrons, ions, with applications ranging from ionospheric physics to materials processing.
General interests: Electromagnetics, fusion concepts, future enabling materials, traveling wave circuits, microwave vacuum electronics, plasma physics, circular and linear particle accelerators, electron and ion sources, pulsed power and radio frequency electronics.
Grants and Sponsored Research
Selected Publications
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H. McCright, I.G. Abel, I. Haber, P.G. O'Shea, B.L. Beaudoin, "First Observation of Dispersive Shock Waves in an Electron Beam," arXiv:2510.19786 [physics.acc-ph]
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Measurements of fusion yield on the Centrifugal Mirror Fusion Experiment
John Leland Ball, Shon Mackie, Jacob van de Lindt, Willow Morrissey, Artur Perevalov, Zachary Short, Nick Raoul Schwartz, Timothy W Koeth, Brian Beaudoin, Carlos Romero-Talamas, John E Rice and Roy Alexander Tinguely
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Investigating beam dynamics with measurement-driven initialization
Liam A. Pocher, Shiyi Wang, Kevin L. Hermstein, Brian L. Beaudoin, Dan T. Abell, Thomas M. Antonsen, Irving Haber, Patrick G. O'Shea