Evgueni Oks, PhD, College of Sciences and Mathematics Faculty and Staff

Short Bio

Professor Oks received the highest degree of Doctor of Sciences from the Institute of General Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR by the decision of the Scientific Council led by the Nobel Prize winner, academician A.M. Prokhorov. According to the Statute of the Doctor of Sciences degree, this highest degree is awarded only to the most outstanding Ph.D. scientists who founded a new research field of great interest. Oks worked in Moscow (USSR) as the head of a research unit at the Center for Studying Surfaces and Vacuum, then – at the Ruhr University in Bochum (Germany) as an invited professor, and for the last 36 years – at the Physics Department of the Auburn University (USA) in the position of Professor (now – Professor Emeritus, Affiliated Faculty). He conducted research in 5 areas: atomic and molecular physics, astrophysics, nuclear physics, plasma physics, laser physics, and nonlinear dynamics. He founded/co-founded and developed new research fields, such as intra-Stark spectroscopy (new class of nonlinear optical phenomena in plasmas), masing without inversion (advanced schemes for generating/amplifying coherent microwave radiation), and quantum chaos (nonlinear dynamics in the microscopic world). He also developed a large number of advanced spectroscopic methods for diagnosing various laboratory and astrophysical plasmas – the methods that were then used and are used by many experimental groups around the world. He recently revealed that there are two flavors of hydrogen atoms, as proven by the analysis of atomic experiments and by the resolution of the long-standing neutron lifetime puzzle; there is also a possible astrophysical proof – from observations of the anomalous absorption of the 21 cm radio line from the early Universe. He showed that baryonic dark matter can be represented by the second flavor of hydrogen atoms and by the second flavor of He+ ions. He published over 750 papers and 15 books, including the books “Plasma Spectroscopy: The Influence of Microwave and Laser Fields”, “Stark Broadening of Hydrogen and Hydrogenlike Spectral Lines in Plasmas: The Physical Insight”, “Breaking Paradigms in Atomic and Molecular Physics”, “Diagnostics of Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas Using Spectral Lineshapes of One-, Two, and Three-Electron Systems”, “Unexpected Similarities of the Universe with Atomic and Molecular Systems: What a Beautiful World”, “Analytical Advances in Quantum and Celestial Mechanics: Separating Rapid and Slow Subsystems”, “Advances in X-Ray Spectroscopy of Laser Plasmas”, “Simple Atomic and Molecular Systems: New Results and Applications”, “Advances in the Physics of Rydberg Atoms and Molecules”, “The Second Flavor of Hydrogen Atoms – the Leading Candidate for Dark Matter: Theoretical Discovery and the Proofs from Experiments and Astrophysical Observations”, “Recent Advances in Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Exoplanets, Flare Stars, White Dwarfs, and More”, “Nonlinear Phenomena in the Radiation from Plasmas”, “Polarization and Directional Effects in the Radiation from Plasmas”, and “Hydrogenic Lineshape-Based Spectroscopic Diagnostics of Stars and of the Hottest Laboratory Plasmas”. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journals “Journal of Fundamental and Observational Physics and Astrophysics”, “Physics International” and “International Review of Atomic and Molecular Physics”. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of five other journals: “American Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics”, “Open Physics”, “Open Journal of Microphysics”, “Current Physics”, and “Academic Journal of Physics Research”. He is a member of the Reviewers Board of the journal “Atoms”. He is also a member of the International Program Committee of the biannual series of conferences “Spectral Line Shapes”.