Jeffrey P. Freidberg was head of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1997 to 2003.[1][2][3] He is currently Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering (Emeritus) at MIT,[4] and a collaborator at NYU's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.[5] He retired as associate director of MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center and from his academic duties in 2011.[6] He remained involved in the research activities of the PSFC Theory Group and wrote a new textbook on magnetohydrodynamics theory called Ideal MHD that was published in 2014 (a successor to his 1987 book Ideal Magnetohydronamics).[6][7] He is also author of a book titled Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy first published in 2007, that was based on a series of course notes from MIT graduate courses on plasma physics and fusion energy.[8]
He attended the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now New York University Tandon School of Engineering) earning a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1961, a M.S. in electrophysics in 1962 and a Ph.D. in electrophysics in 1964.[4]