Obituary of Douglas McCune (1956-2011)

Douglas McCune, a computational scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and the mastermind behind a pivotal integrated software package used to analyze and validate results on fusion energy experiments worldwide, has died at age 55.

McCune, co-head of the computational plasma physics group at the Laboratory, and the prime developer of TRANSP, a time-dependent transport analysis code for experiments in doughnut-shaped fusion devices known as tokamaks, was fatally injured in a cycling accident on July 16 in Clinton Township, N.J. He was riding on the final day of the annual weeklong ‘Ride for Runaways,’ in support of Anchor House, a charitable organization dedicated to helping troubled children located in Trenton, N.J.

He was internationally renowned and coauthored dozens of conference papers and journal articles, particularly in the field of experimental plasma physics and controlled fusion.

‘His technical achievements have been and will be a significant force in much of our magnetic fusion research for years to come, both within the U.S. and overseas,’ said Ed Synakowski, associate director of the DOE’s Office of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences. ‘Indeed, Doug stood as a chief architect and the steward of one of magnetic fusion’s most important computational research tools. His achievements and impact professionally were exceeded only by his humility and good humor.’

In 2001, he was honored for seminal contributions to his field as PPPL’s Distinguished Engineering Fellow. He also was recognized for his more recent work in establishing and leading the Laboratory’s computational plasma physics group, which has been vital to the development of modern computational physics for both PPPL and the fusion energy science community.

‘Doug McCune was very well known and admired at fusion labs the world over as the mastermind behind complex computer codes that are used to make sense of experimental data that pour out of modern fusion experiments,’ said Stewart Prager, director of PPPL. ‘His codes are used at major labs in the U.S. and abroad and have greatly influenced fusion research. But, he was equally admired as a person of unusual generosity and gentleness. The professional and personal loss to PPPL and the fusion program in general is enormous.’

McCune’s career-long masterpiece was his code, essentially an ‘app’ simulating how tokamaks behave. Now running hundreds of thousands of carefully crafted lines long, the code represents the dazzlingly complex forces at work when a hot, ionized gas known as a plasma is bottled up in a magnetic field to produce fusion in vast experimental vacuum vessels.

The software program solved the dense mathematical equations that represent the physical forces at work in fusion experiments and contained state-of-the-art computer models. It was so consistently accurate and realistic, scientists said, that experimentalists could take real data from experiments, input it into the program and check and see whether their results were realistic or mere statistical flukes. He also made the program readily available to researchers worldwide.

‘Through Doug’s Herculean efforts, many groups have easy access to the same state-of-the-art code,’ said Robert Goldston, former director of PPPL, who worked with McCune for over 30 years. ‘As a result, Doug’s code has functioned as an international ‘gold standard,’ making it possible for scientists to collaborate across continents, thereby advancing together the development of fusion, a safe, clean, and unlimited energy source.’

The code was used to analyze the record-setting experiments on PPPL’s Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor and the Joint European Torus, both of which produced more than 10 megawatts of fusion power.

McCune was a beloved figure at PPPL, both for his brilliance and his generosity of spirit.

‘Professionally, Doug was in a class by himself,’ said Steve Jardin, who co-led the PPPL computational physics group with McCune. ‘He was the one people would go to if they wanted to know if some proposed software project was even possible, and, if so, how it might be accomplished. He was also incredibly selfless. He spent hour upon hour of his own time in preparing detailed email responses to hundreds of users of the TRANSP and other software packages who were having difficulty or needed advice. It is hard to see who could fill the vacuum that he left.’

Though McCune was not trained as a physicist, ‘he was one of the best physicists in the building’ according to Stanley Kaye, a principal research physicist at PPPL who worked closely with the computational scientist. Researchers admired McCune’s deep understanding of the effects that were critical to evaluating the transport processes in plasmas, how these effects could be expressed mathematically and how they could be adapted numerically, Kaye said.

‘Doug was one of those quiet but brilliant and reliable guys who was essential in a big team to getting things done,’ said Greg Hammett, a colleague and a principal research physicist at PPPL.

Most recently, McCune was involved in the modification of ELVis, intelligent software that allows internet-friendly graphical display of scientific data. He consistently impressed his colleagues with his ability to handle the pressures of the scientific environment.

‘In a sometimes contentious scientific field, Doug was always a gentleman,’ said John Cary, a professor of physics at the University of Colorado and the CEO of Tech-X Corporation who has worked with McCune since the early 90s in computational plasma physics. ‘He was serious with his science, but he could joke around a bit to take the edge off of tense interactions. He will be remembered for his professional work and for his kindness and humor.’

McCune was born in Ithaca, N.Y. He started elementary school at the Nassau Street School in Princeton but later moved to Lexington, Mass. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Yale University in 1978 and immediately joined the PPPL staff as a computational scientist. He received a master’s degree in computer science from Drexel University in 1995.

Friends and colleagues said that McCune’s personal humility often concealed his estimable intellectual firepower and world-class professional accomplishments. Doug regularly generated spectacularly important scientific results, in a sort of an ‘aw-shucks’ kind of way,’ Goldston said.

He was devoted to charitable causes. Tim Quinn, a friend of McCune’s who worked with him on fundraising activities for Anchor House, described him as driven to help others. ‘In addition to being the smartest man I ever met, he displayed a remarkable emotional intelligence,’ Quinn said. ‘He spent his whole life contributing to the greater good.’

McCune is survived by his wife, Susan Jefferies, his mother, Mary Ellen Turner, stepfather W. Bard Turner, and his stepmother, Ursula McCune.

A memorial service will be held later this year. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in McCune’s memory to Anchor House Ride for Runaways securely at http://www.anchorhouseride.org/Donate.aspx or sent to Anchor House Ride for Runaways, 482 Centre Street, Trenton, NJ 08611.