David J. C. MacKay continued his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences (Experimental and theoretical physics) in 1988. He went to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a Fulbright Scholar, where his supervisor was John Hopfield. He was awarded a PhD in 1992. In January 1992 MacKay was appointed the Royal Society Smithson Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, continuing his cross-disciplinary research in the Cavendish Laboratory, the Department of Physics of the University of Cambridge. In 1995 he was made a University Lecturer in the Cavendish Laboratory. He was promoted in 1999 to
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory science, solar physics, chemistry, and manufacturing. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) completed the National Spherical Torus Experiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) that makes it the most powerful experimental fusion facility, or tokamak, of its type in the world. Experiments will test the ability of the upgraded spherical facility to maintain a high-performance plasma under conditions of extreme heat and power. Results could strongly influence the design of future fusion reactors. In 1961 Gottlieb became the first director of the renamed Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a