| Citation | Tony Bell has made seminal contributions to laser-plasma physics and astrophysics. In the 1980s he developed Fokker-Planck modelling to solve the long-standing non-local heat conduction problem. He pioneered ultra-strong magnetic field generation in short-pulse laser-solid interaction, now experimentally confirmed. Recently he has initiated studies of QED-effects in high laser-fields. Building on his plasma insights he elegantly extended his seminal work on diffusive shock acceleration proposing the Bell Instability, a mechanism to amplify magnetic fields which can explain the particle energies reached in supernova remnants. For this work he was awarded the 2014 Hoyle Medal by the Institute of Physics and the 2016 Eddington Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society. |