Simon Cooke 2002 Early Achievement Award

Simon Cooke received the B.Sc. degree in Physics from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland in 1988, and the D.Phil. degree from the University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science in 1993. His doctoral research involved experimental and numerical analysis of the optical properties of monolayer organic molecular films. He rejoined the Department of Physics at the University of Strathclyde in 1992, as a Research Associate in the Relativistic Electrons, Lasers & Discharges research group. In 1996, he moved to the Vacuum Electronics Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, where he has been employed under contract with the University of Maryland (1996-98) and Science Applications International Corporation (1998-present).
At the University of Strathclyde, Dr. Cooke was the lead researcher in the design and successful operation of the first second harmonic, cyclotron auto-resonance maser (CARM) experiment for high power microwave generation. In the course of this research, he developed a suite of design codes to simulate fields and relativistic beam trajectories in the electron gun, including space-charge and self-magnetic fields, and coherent interaction with the electromagnetic “Bragg” cavity. The codes remain in use in the design of new research experiments.
At NRL, Dr. Cooke’s research interests lie in the development of advanced three-dimensional electromagnetic algorithms for applications in vacuum electronics. He was the author of a 3-D, frequency-domain, electromagnetics simulation code, CTLSS, among the first to efficiently compute the spectrum of eigenfrequencies for complex 3-D cavities with strongly absorbing materials. CTLSS has been used actively by the U.S. vacuum electronics industry in the design of microwave amplifiers since 1998. Dr. Cooke’s recent research includes algorithms to alleviate the numerical complexity of very large 3-D simulations, subdividing the domain to derive an accurate equivalent circuit model, with the goal of simulating complete traveling wave interaction circuits in 3-D and integrating with time-domain simulations of non-linear electron beam interactions.
The award will be presented at the ICOPS conference in Jeju, Korea in June 2003. His citation reads: “For contributions to numerical modeling of vacuum electron devices and RF components through the development of advanced algorithms for three-dimensional electromagnetic simulation.”
Simon Cooke has been a member of the IEEE and NPSS since 1995, and can be reached at the Naval Research Laboratory, Vacuum Electronics Branch, Code 6840, 4555 Overlook Avenue S.W., Washington DC 20375; Phone +1 202 404-4511; Fax: +1 202 767-1280; E-mail: simon.cooke@nrl.navy.mil