Authors' Accepted Manuscript Published as: Eur. Phys. J. H. (2018) https://doi.org/10.1140/epjh/e2018-90042-3 Title An interview with Roald Sagdeev: his story of plasma physics in Russia, 1956- 1988 Authors and Affiliations Roald Z. Sagdeev1 and Patrick H. Diamond2,3,a 1 University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-0280, USA 2 Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0424, USA 3 Center for Fusion Science, Southwestern Institute of Physics, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China a e-mail:
[email protected] 1 Abstract This oral history interview presents Roald Z. Sagdeev’s story of plasma physics in Russia. It chronicles the Russian school’s achievements in basic, laboratory, fusion and space plasma physics. The interview begins with memories of Sagdeev’s graduate student days in Moscow and then describes his work at the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy (1956-1961), the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk (1961-1971) and the Space Research Institute (IKI) (1973-1988). The interview examines the development of quasilinear theory, collisionless shocks, wave turbulence, instabilities, drift waves, chaos theory, the early stages of magnetic confinement theory and space plasma physics. Sagdeev and his school made seminal contributions in all of these areas, and all are central topics in plasma physics today. Sagdeev also speaks of his collaborations and friendships with notable scientists, such as M. N. Rosenbluth, M. A. Leontovich, L. A. Artisimovich, L. I. Rudakov, A. A. Galeev, V. E. Zakharov, as well as of the political and institutional challenges of this period.