Recent News

June 28, 2022

Tapping into the million-year energy source below our feet

MIT spinout Quaise Energy wants to repurpose coal and gas plants into deep geothermal wells by using PSFC Research Engineer Paul Woskov's gyrotron drilling technology to melt rock.

MIT News

June 8, 2022

Evan Leppink: Choosing sides

Graduate student Evan Leppink will explore a new way to drive current in a tokamak plasma using radiofrequency (RF) waves during his residency at DIII-D in San Diego, CA.

PSFC News

June 2, 2022

PSFC to explore geothermal stimulation technology

PSFC has received ARPA-E funding to participate in the development of next generation geothermal stimulation technology.

Plasma Science and Fusion Center

May 16, 2022

For plasma with a hot core and cool edges, Super-H Mode shows promise

PSFC research scientist Theresa Wilks participated in research at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility that demonstrated how, in a fusion tokamak, a high-performance operating regime called Super H-mode can leverage the use of impurities to improve core-edge integration.

Energy.Gov

May 14, 2022

Justin Kunimune wins prestigious LRGF fellowship

Kunimune will spend time at the LLNL working with Dan Casey PhD ’12 in Verena Geppert-Kleinrath’s research group.

NSE News

May 13, 2022

Researchers stick out their necks to understand how fusion plasmas fuel up

MIT’s Aaron Rosenthal and other researchers are using a new camera diagnostic to understand neutral particles at the boundary of fusion devices.

Energy.Gov

May 13, 2022

Poet Kealoha Wong ’99 to speak at the MIT Classes of 2020 and 2021 Graduation Celebration

Hawaii's poet laureate Kealoha Wong ’99, who was an intern at the PSFC, will deliver the keynote address at the Classes of 2020 and 2021 Graduation Celebration.

MIT Alumni Association

May 12, 2022

Practically changing the world

PSFC Director Dennis Whyte received  a 2022 University of Saskatchewan Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his significant accomplishments since graduating from USask.

University of Saskatchewan News

May 9, 2022

How the Universe got its magnetic field

By studying the dynamics of plasma turbulence, MIT researchers are solving one of the mysteries of the origins of cosmological magnetic fields.

PSFC News

May 6, 2022

New leadership team launches a revisioning of the future of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center

Five from Center assume new duties to support the growth of collaborations, research, and education at MIT

PSFC News

May 6, 2022

MIT expands research collaboration with Commonwealth Fusion Systems to build net energy fusion machine, SPARC

New five-year agreement will support SPARC science, increase graduate students and post-docs, and support interdisciplinary work towards fusion power plants

PSFC News

May 5, 2022

PSFC TFMC team leaders honored with Infinite Mile Awards

In a ceremony held on May 5, the team leaders for the Plasma Science and Fusion Center’s Toroidal Field Model Coil (TFMC) received 2022 MIT Infinite Mile Awards.

PSFC News

April 6, 2022

Turning neutrons into fusion fuel

“One of the things that you get good at while at MIT,” says PSFC research scientist Sara Ferry, “is being able to start from nothing on a particular system or skill and knowing how to approach it in a way that’s effective.”

PSFC News

April 6, 2022

Machine learning, harnessed to extreme computing, aids fusion energy development

MIT research scientists Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez and Nathan Howard predict the temperature and density profiles of a magnetically confined plasma via first-principles simulation of plasma turbulence.

PSFC News

March 22, 2022

Martin Greenwald: Finding the questions that guide MIT fusion research

As Martin Greenwald retires from the PSFC, he reflects on time at MIT, pursuing the question of how to make the carbon-free energy of fusion a reality.

PSFC News

February 25, 2022

Finding her way to fusion

Zoe Fisher's undergraduate research journey leads to a role working on the SPARC tokamak.

PSFC News

February 22, 2022

John Rice on Plasma Rotation

John Rice's new book "Driven Rotation, Self-Generated Flow, and Momentum Transport" consolidates an understanding of the topic gained from years of experience at MIT.

PSFC News

February 11, 2022

European scientists demonstrate fusion energy record

On the CBC radio show "The Current" (located halfway down this page), PSFC Director Dennis Whyte responds to the news of a fusion breakthrough at JET in the UK.

CBC News

February 10, 2022

Gatu Johnson and Frenje receive NNSA Secretary’s Honor Award

PSFC's Maria Gatu Johnson and Johan Frenje were part of a team who won the NNSA Secretary's Honor Award for the achievement of a Burning Plasma at the National Ignition Facility.

PSFC News

February 9, 2022

Tuning in to invisible waves on the JET tokamak

In England for the last two years, research scientist Alex Tinguely has been overseeing a special antenna used on the UK’s record-breaking fusion experiment.

PSFC News

January 18, 2022

Mapping the depths of plasma physics

In his new lab where he will study how plasma behaves in the universe, assistant professor of nuclear science and engineering Jack Hare draws inspiration from spelunking.

NSE News

January 3, 2022

Turbulence yields to topology

NSE PhD candidate Lucio Milanese expands a theory of turbulence to include both ionized and non-ionized fluids.

PSFC News

December 13, 2021

Seeing the plasma edge of fusion experiments in new ways with AI

In a pair of recent publications, Abhilash Mathews begins directly testing the accuracy of a reduced plasma turbulence model in a new way: he combines physics with machine learning.

PSFC News

December 10, 2021

Helping make fusion a reality

Fusion has great potential as a carbon-free energy source but plasma turbulence presents a problem. Rachel Bielajew is taking on that challenge and helping make a better world—through science and community action.

MIT NSE News

November 22, 2021

Research Administration Spotlight: Katherine Ware and David Parker

PSFC Senior Fiscal Office Katherine Ware and Administrative Officer David Parker share their enjoyment of working at the PSFC in this RA Community News interview. 

RA Community News

November 12, 2021

MIT makes strides on climate action plan

Prof. Anne White (co-chair of MIT's Climate Nucleus) and PSFC Director Dennis White both contributed to the MIT Climate Tune-In, just part of the Institute's effort to make strides on climate change discussed in this article.

MIT News

November 12, 2021

Gene Dresselhaus, influential research scientist in solid-state physics, dies at 91

Gene Dresselhaus, a longtime research physicist at MIT who worked at Lincoln Laboratory, the Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory and the PSFC, died peacefully at his home in California on Sept. 29 at age 91.

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

November 8, 2021

Anne White: Then and Now / 2011 Early Career Award Winner

SoE Distinguished Professor of Engineering Anne White answers the question "What did the 2011 Department of Energy Early Career Award allow you to do?"

Department of Energy Office of Science

October 27, 2021

MIT Energy Initiative awards seven Seed Fund grants for early-stage energy research

PSFC Director Dennis Whyte and NSE Professor Jeff Freidberg have received a Seed Fund grant from MITEI to study “Advanced MHD topping cycles: For fission, fusion, solar power plants."

MIT Energy Initiative

October 22, 2021

Alessandro Marinoni: Returning to fusion’s D-turn

Alessandro Marinoni has continued to examine an innovative plasma shape, dubbed “negative triangularity,” extending previous research to configurations more compatible with the plasma environment of a reactor. 

PSFC News

October 22, 2021

Radiofrequency wave scattering improves fusion simulations

By incorporating the scattering of radiofrequency waves into fusion simulations, MIT physicists improve heating and current drive predictions for fusion plasmas.

PSFC News

October 12, 2021

Can nuclear fusion put the breaks on climate change

A brief history of the road to ARC and SPARC as it leads to the historic magnet testing at MIT in September 2021.

The New Yorker

September 28, 2021

MIT makes key contribution to the National Ignition Facility’s historic fusion experiment

The PSFC's Magnetic Recoil neutron Spectrometer was vital to the success of the National Ignitiion Facilities historic fusion yield, which puts researchers within reach of "ignition."

PSFC News

September 17, 2021

MIT appoints members of new faculty committee to drive climate action plan

Profs. Anne White and Noelle Selin will cochair MIT's Climate Nucleus, a committee established by the Institute’s “Fast Forward” climate action plan.

MIT News

September 10, 2021

Commercial fusion by 2030? With latest test, scientists say it's in reach

Two teams of Cambridge scientists say they have successfully tested the world's strongest high-temperature superconducting magnet, putting them a step closer towards a workable fusion reactor.

WBUR

September 7, 2021

MIT-designed magnet is a major advance toward fusion energy

New superconducting magnet breaks magnetic field strength records, paving the way for practical, commercial, carbon-free power.

MIT News

September 3, 2021

3 Questions: Daniel Cohn on the benefits of high-efficiency, flexible fuel engines for heavy-duty trucking

Dan Cohn and Leslie Bromberg have been developing a highly efficient, gasoline-ethanol engine that could help to efficiently reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the heavy-duty trucking sector.

MIT Energy Initiative News

September 2, 2021

Negative triangularity - a positive for tokamak fusion reactors

MIT researchers have teamed with the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne to learn more about plasma edge dynamics and power and particle exhaust properties.

U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, Fusion Energy Sciences

August 18, 2021

Steven Jepeal wins second place prize in Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D awards

MIT Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) graduate student Steven Jepeal has been awarded a Second Place prize in the 2021 Innovations in Nuclear Technology R&D Awards.

PSFC News

August 9, 2021

New leadership for PSFC High-Energy-Density Physics division

After 45 years at MIT’s PSFC and 15 years heading their High-Energy-Density Physics (HEDP) Division, Senior Research Scientist Richard Petrasso has stepped down to pursue new research interests.

PSFC News

July 9, 2021

Magnet Man

After overseeing three years of research and development, Brian LaBombard is ready to test a toroidal field model coil (TFMC), a prototype for those that will be used in the new fusion experiment, SPARC.

PSFC News

July 7, 2021

Model engineer

Since joining the SPARC project, Mechanical Engineer Amy Watterson has honed her modeling skills to prepare fusion magnets for a crucial test.

PSFC News

July 2, 2021

Emvolon raises $1.5 million seed funding to evolve distributed chemical production

Emvolon, cofounded by PSFC Principal Research Scientist Leslie Bromberg, will explore converting wasted natural gas at flare sites into usable chemicals for use industrial applications or as a fuel.

The Engine