Dr. Zigler has more than 30 years of experience in experimental physics in area of electro-optics, spectroscopy, high power lasers, plasma physics, interaction of high intensity ultra short pulse laser with matter. He is a Full Professor at Racah Institute of Physics at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and visiting Professor at Nat.Inst. Nuc. Phys. (INFN) Frascati Italy. Consulting to numerous companies in USA. Dr. Zigler has published over 200 scientific publications delivered numerous invited talks at scientific conferences and holds 12 patents. He is a fellow of American Physics Society.

Academic Degrees:

1968 - 1971:         B. Sc. - Hebrew University , Jerusalem , Israel.

1972 - 1974:         M. Sc. - Hebrew University, Jerusalem , Israel.

1975 - 1978:         Ph.D. - Hebrew University, Jerusalem , Israel.

Academic Appointments:

1978- 1981         Senior Researcher Soreq Research Center Israel, Group Leader of XUV and X-ray spectroscopy experiments

1981-1982        Senior Scientist INESCO Tokamak project San Diego Ca, USA Responsible for diagnostics package for compact Tokamak experiment.

1982 -1983        Visiting Scientist, Plasma Fusion Center, M.I.T, Cambridge MA, USA Developed K beta diagnostic for Alcator C Tokamak

1983- 1985         Head of Experimental Plasma Branch, Soreq NRC Israel Dealt with theoretical and experimental study of spectroscopy of highly ionized heavy atoms

1985                Visiting Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA. Study of interaction of high power laser and developed point backlighting source for fusion studies

1986- 1987         Visiting Scientist, Dept. of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, USA. Introduce ultra fast switching X-ray radiation

1987-1991        Head of Plasma Physics Department, Soreq Research Center Israel. Leader of R&D activities of 20 Ph.D researchers in the fields of laser-plasma interactions, X-ray radiation, shockwave phenomena and nonlinear optics. The application of one of methods is widely used for interpretation of laser-produced plasma experiments as well as of radiative properties of stellar plasmas is highly cited (above 220).

1991- 1992        Senior Physicist, ARCO Power Technologies, Inc., Washington DC, USA. Was responsible for physics aspects of design and development of airborne laser-optical instruments for detection oil films and trace elements in water. The work has led to two patents.

1992- 1995         Associate Professor, The Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Leader of research group, deals with interaction of ultra short laser radiation with solids, laser wake field acceleration in plasmas, and x-ray lasers.

1995        Full Professor, The Racah Institute of Physics of Physics, Hebrew University Main activities are in the field of electron and proton acceleration. More than 30 publications related electron accelerations were published and widely cited (more than 200), intense laser propagation in the atmosphere. Our works on laser filamentation the atmosphere are also highly cited.

2000- 2001         Senior Researcher, Naval Research Laboratory /FMtech, Washington DC. Dealt with interaction of ultra short pulse laser with solid targets (sabbatical)

2006-2007 Senior Researcher, Naval Research Laboratory/Icarus, Washington DC Development of capillary discharges for intense laser guiding (sabbatical)

2007 Louis and Ida Shlansky Chair of Physics at Faculty of Science, Hebrew University

of Jerusalem

2012- 2014 Visiting Professor University of Maryland, College Park Maryland, USA

2014 -                 Visiting Professor INFN , Frascati , Italy

Fellowships

2000 -                 Fellow American Physics Society - In recognition of his fundamental experimental contributions to the field of ultra high intensity laser matter interactions

    Remote manipulation (triggering and guiding) of lightning in atmospheric conditions of thunderstorms has been the subject of intense scientific research for decades, due to its immediate utility in safety and economic issues. High power, ultrashort-pulse lasers are considered attractive in generating plasma channels in air that could serve as conductors/diverters for lightning. However, two fundamental obstacles, namely the limited length and lifetime of such plasma channels prevented their realization to this date.. I will report decisive experimental results of our multi-element broken wire concept that extends the generated plasma channels to the required tens of meters range. I will present also plasma channel lifetime extension using dual (fsec/nsec) lasers. We obtained 15-meter-long plasma “broken” wire with plasma conditions sufficient for the lightning leader initiation, limited only by our current experimental set up. These advances, coupled with our demonstrated extended plasma channel lifetime obtained by a long laser pulse heating prove a significant step towards controlling lightning.