James F. Drake (born June 26, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist who specializes in plasma physics.
[1] He is known for his studies on plasma instabilities[2][3] and magnetic reconnection[4][5] for which he was awarded the 2010 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics by the American Physical Society.
[7] He is known for explaining the mechanisms of the rapid reconnection of magnetic field lines and the resulting particle accelerations in astrophysical plasmas (for example on the sun).
[8] In computer simulations with Amitava Bhattacharjee and Michael Hesse (NASA), he was able to demonstrate the explosive nature of the dynamics of the magnetic fields, for example in solar flares.
[6] He also received a Senior US Research Scientist Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.