IAP Seminars

Held every January, the IAP is an opportunity for members of the MIT community to participate and learn about topics beyond their customary areas of interest. At the PSFC, IAP activities are organized around a set of seminars and tours which are targeted for audiences both inside and outside our Center.

Jan 15, 2019

Alcator C-Mod tour

Francesco Sciortino

PSFC

Visit the Alcator C-Mod tokamak, a major fusion energy experiment that recently completed its final run with breakthrough results. Alcator C- Mod is the third in a series of tokamak devices at MIT that use very high magnetic fields to confine plasmas operating near 100,000,000 degrees.

1:00pm  |  NW17-218

Jan 15, 2019

Introduction to magnetic fusion and the SPARC project

Libby Tolman

PSFC

This introduction to the science and technology underlying magnetic fusion energy will review the current state of research and provide an overview of MIT's SPARC project, designed to demonstrate net fusion energy.  

11:00am  |  NW17-218

Jan 31, 2018

Alcator C-Mod Tour

TBD

MIT

Visit the Alcator C-Mod tokamak, a major fusion energy experiment that has completed its final fun with breakthrough results. Alcator C- Mod is the third in a series of tokamak devices at MIT that use very high magnetic fields to confine plasmas operating near 100,000,000 degrees.

3:00pm  |  NW17-218

Jan 31, 2018

The design challenges of nuclear tokamaks – lessons learned so far

Tom Todd

Center for Fusion Energy

This talk presents some of the key challenges, both overcome and outstanding, in designing a tokamak for fusion research, with focus on ITER, currently nearing full design finalization, and with much of its construction well advanced. It will include some lesser-known aspects of design that may surprise even the cognoscenti!

2:00pm  |  NW17-218

Jan 31, 2018

The oceans in a warming world

John Marshall

MIT

In this lecture we will touch on some of the above questions and review how scientists observe patterns of warming propagating down in to the ocean's interior, how the ocean is responding to that warming and what we think the future holds and why.

11:00am  |  NW17-218

Jan 26, 2018

The cosmic origin of the chemical elements

Anna Frebel

Professor of Physics / MIT

We are made from star stuff -- but how exactly? I will describe how elements up to and including iron are made in fusion processes within the hot cores of stars, and how all the heavier elements are synthesized in neutron-capture processes. 

11:00am  |  NW17-218

Jan 23, 2018

Tour of High-Energy Density Physics Lab

Cody Parker and Hong Sio

MIT

Join members of the PSFC's High-Energy Density Physics Lab to see how MIT supports research into inertial confinement fusion, collaborating with LLNL's National Ignition Facility and the University of Rochester's OMEGA laser.

3:00pm  |  NW17-218

Jan 23, 2018

Exploring the universe through discovery science on NIF

Bruce Remington

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Ultra-high power lasers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) allow laboratory study of matter in extreme conditions - ordinarily only found in stars or in the cores of giant planets.  This talk will review some of the new science revealed by this unique facility.

11:00am  |  NW17-218

Jan 22, 2018

Additive manufacturing, fusion technology, wolves and places I like to hike

Richard Nygren

Sandia National Laboratories

Nygren is exploring the use of Advanced Manufacturing (AM+) processes as a transformative technology for manufacturing robust plasma facing components (PFCs) for future fusion reactors.   In this talk he offers ideas about future fusion reactors, explains the various technologies needed, and the potential for AM+  to enable innovations. AM+, while mixling in his own humor and slides of his treks in the wilderness. 

2:00pm  |  NW17-218

Feb 2, 2017

How to control the climate

David Keith

Harvard University

What tools exist, or could reasonably be developed, to directly alter the Earth's climate? What are the limits to solar geoengineering? What are the ethics might apply to the development of such tools?

2:00pm  |  NW17-218

Jan 25, 2017

How the universe magnetizes itself: instabilities, turbulence and magnetic reconnection.

Nuno Loureiro

MIT PSFC

It is reasonably well established that magnetic fields were not created in the Big Bang, so a question naturally arises as to where they come from. Understanding cosmic magnetogenesis, as the problem is usually called, is plasma physics at its very best. Prof. Loureiro will describe these processes at an introductory level, and their role in magnetic field generation, amplification and dynamics.

2:00pm  |  1-190

Jan 23, 2017

New financing models for funding fusion energy

Andrew Lo

MIT Sloan School of Management

The recent announcement by Softbank of a $100 billion technology fund suggests that there *is* money available if we can create a financially attractive investment vehicle to commercialize fusion technology.

2:00pm  |  NW17-218

Jan 13, 2017

High-energy-density physics on NIF

Warren Hsing

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Warren Hsing will summarize experiments and future capabilities at the National Ignition Facility.

2:00pm  |  NW17-218

Jan 13, 2017

High-Energy-Density Physics Laboratory tour

Cody Parker and Graeme Sutcliffe

MIT PSFC

This tour showcases Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) research at MIT. The PSFC High-Energy-Density Physics group has developed and/or calibrated a number of nuclear diagnostics installed on the OMEGA laser at the University of Rochester, NY, and on the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, CA, to study nuclear products generated in fusion reactions.  

1:00pm  |  NW17-218

Jan 11, 2017

Alcator C-Mod tour

Alex Tinguely

MIT PSFC

Visit the Alcator C-Mod tokamak, a major fusion energy experiment that recently completed its final run with breakthrough results. Alcator C- Mod is the third in a series of tokamak devices at MIT that use very high magnetic fields to confine plasmas operating near 100,000,000 degrees.

4:00pm  |  NW17-218