physics

N. Anne Davies

N. Anne Davies is a physics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand N. Anne Davies rather than just read about it. In short: Nelia Anne Carlton Davies (born 1943) is a retired American physicist who oversaw US-based research on fusion power as head of the US Fusion Energy Sciences program from 1989 to 2006. Education and career Davies was born on February 15, 1943, in Springfield, Missouri.

Key takeaways

N. Anne Davies belongs to physics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect N. Anne Davies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of N. Anne Davies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Nelia Anne Carlton Davies (born 1943) is a retired American physicist who oversaw US-based research on fusion power as head of the US Fusion Energy Sciences program from 1989 to 2006.

Education and career Davies was born on February 15, 1943, in Springfield, Missouri. She grew up in Arkansas, and graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1961. She majored in physics at Vassar College, and completed a Ph.D. in 1972 at Yale University, with a dissertation in plasma physics, supervised by Jay L. Hirshfield. After two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, she joined the Tokamak Systems Branch of the United States Atomic Energy Commission in 1974, and became branch chief in 1975. Through the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, this part of the Atomic Energy Commission was split into the newly formed Energy Research and Development Administration in 1975, and then merged into the United States Department of Energy when it was created in 1977. In 1980, she became a divisional director, of the Toroidal Confinement Systems Division in the Office of Fusion Energy. She was named as deputy director of the US Fusion Energy Sciences program in 1985, and director in 1989. Her tenure saw the program through turbulent times, as the US Congress cut its budget from $345 million to $284 million in 1991, raised it to $350 million again by 1995, and cut it to $239 million the following year. She retired in 2006. In her retirement, she moved to a farm in Boyds, Maryland, took up horseback fox hunting, and joined the board of directors of Fusion Power Associates, a private foundation for fusion power research.

Recognition Davies received the Meritorious Service Award of the Department of Energy in 1984, the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award in 1991, and the Secretary of Energy Gold Medal in 1997, and the Meritorious Presidential Executive Rank Award in 1999. In 2003, she was named as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), after a nomination from the APS Forum on Physics and Society, "for her successful efforts guiding the fusion research community through a difficult transition from a program of energy technology development to a healthy program focused on the critical scientific and technology foundations of fusion energy research".

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with N. Anne Davies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what N. Anne Davies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to N. Anne Davies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about N. Anne Davies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of N. Anne Davies

In research: N. Anne Davies appears in physics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses N. Anne Davies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: N. Anne Davies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 births, 20th-century American physicists, 20th-century American women physicists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for N. Anne Davies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study N. Anne Davies in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what N. Anne Davies means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain N. Anne Davies out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is N. Anne Davies in simple terms?

Nelia Anne Carlton Davies (born 1943) is a retired American physicist who oversaw US-based research on fusion power as head of the US Fusion Energy Sciences program from 1989 to 2006. Education and career Davies was born on February 15, 1943, in Springfield, Missouri.

Why does N. Anne Davies matter?

Because it connects several physics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study N. Anne Davies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on N. Anne Davies.