The MIT Fusion Landscape

Chaired by Dennis Whyte

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

1:00pm

34-101

IAP Seminars

Mitigating global climate change demands new sources of zero-carbon energy on the grid as soon as possible. Fusion energy is the solution. Historically, fusion has been seen as too big, too expensive, and too slow. We are now at a tipping point: recent advances in materials, funding models, and a new generation of scientist and engineers, have come together to ensure fusion energy on the shortest credible timeline ever proposed. MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center is partnering with a private fusion startup, Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which will allow us to demonstrate net fusion energy through a device called SPARC, and then take it through to commercialization. Our aspiration is to take energy from scarcity to abundance in time to arrest climate change, improving the lives of every living thing on the planet, achieving “unlimited energy, for everyone forever”.

In a series of lightning talks seven experts will discuss the current MIT Fusion Landscape. Topics will range from engineering and scientific underpinnings to finance, entrepreneurship and social impact. Join us to learn about MIT’s smarter, sooner path to fusion energy.

Speakers

Rein Beeuwkes Harvard University, MIT alumnus
Dan Brunner CTO, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Kerry Emanuel Cecil and Ida Green Professor, Earth Atmospheric & Planetary Sciences
Andrew Lo Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor, MIT Sloan
Robert Mumgaard CEO, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
Katie Rae CEO and Managing Partner, The Engine
Anne White Associate Professor, Nuclear Science and Engineering

Chair

Dennis Whyte Director, Plasma Science and Fusion Center