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David Ruzic is a professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) and the director of the Center of Plasma-Material Interactions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering. In 2020, he was awarded the Gaude-Langmuir Award, a nationally-recognized award by the American Vacuum Society. He is well known for his Youtube Channel, Illinois EnergyProf, which has a total of 5.9 million views.

Education
David Ruzic earned his B.S. in Physics and Applied Mathematics at Purdue University in 1979. He went on to study Physics at Princeton University, earning his Ph.D. in 1984. At Purdue, he worked as a Professorial and Teaching Assistant. At Princeton, he was part of the Research staff at their Plasma Physics Lab.

Career
In 1984, David Ruzic began his career at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as part of the Graduate faculty for physics. In 1989, he became an Associate Professor for the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering. Since then, Ruzic has acted as the Assistant Dean for the College of Engineering and the Associate Vice President of Administration for the University Administration. At UIUC, he has created multiple courses for the NPRE curriculum, including "Introduction to Energy" and "Advanced Energy Systems."

In 1994, Ruzic became a Professor for the Department of Nuclear Energy. In 2004, he became the director of the Center for Plasma-Material Interactions (CPMI) at UIUC. He appeared on the Discovery Channel show Weird Connections, presenting an episode about plasma interactions.

In 2014, CPMI, led by Ruzic, acquired a fusion machine from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. After being disassembled in Germany, it was taken to UIUC and renamed HIDRA. This made UIUC one of the few universities in the world that had a fusion machine.

Ruzic launched the Illinois Plasma Institute (IPI) in conjunction with Research Park at UIUC in 2020. The purpose of IPI is to be a research initiative that brings together companies and develops new products and technology. IPI became partners with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo in 2020 and LyTen in 2021.

In 2021, the NPRE department at UIUC announced the David Neil Ruzic Undergraduate Scholarship. It was funded by friends, family, institutions, and past graduates.

Research
His research interests include experimental fusion research, plasma processing, and extreme ultraviolet sources. As of 2021, he has published more than 220 journal papers and earned 10 patents. He has also authored two books and written chapters to six.

He has had multiple PhD students, including Mark Hersam.

In 2020, Ruzic led a team at UIUC to find a way to resolve the shortage of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. They used a microwave and other common items to create a plasma that can decontaminate used masks.

Youtube
In October 2018, Ruzic began his Youtube channel, Illinois EnergyProf, which includes over 130 videos about renewable resources, fossil fuels, and nuclear energy, among other topics. As of September 2021, Illinois EnergyProf has 65k subscribers and 5.9 million total views.

Coursera
Ruzic is a teaching instructor for Coursera for the class "Energy, Environment, and Everyday Life."

Awards

 * IEEE NPSS Fusion Technology Award (2020)
 * AVS Gaede-Langmuir Award (2020)
 * Rose Award for Teaching Excellence (2019)
 * AVS Plasma Award (2015)
 * AVS Plasma Science & Technology Division Plasma Prize (2012)
 * UIUC Campus Award for Excellence in Guiding Undergraduate Research
 * Honorary Knight by The Knights of Saint Patrick at UIUC (1996)

Patents

 * "Scalable multi-role surface-wave plasma generator" (2020)
 * "Polarization-Dependent Laser-Assisted Plasma Etching" (2019)

Fellowship

 * Hertz Foundation (1979-)
 * American Nuclear Society (2010-)
 * American Vacuum Society (2007-)
 * American Physical Society (2014-)
 * Society of Photonic and Optics Engineering (2019-)

Other Organizations

 * Science Director of the International Union of Vacuum Science, Technique, and Applications (IUVSTA) (2010-2019)