Recent News

For media inquiries please contact Julianna Mullen

A glass torus glows with purple plasma

April 5, 2024

Student-Designed “Altator” Achieves First Plasma

For the first time since 2016, a toroidal device housed at the PSFC has produced plasma, and it’s thanks to the work of ten graduate students. Named Altator in homage to the experimental tokamak that operated at the PSFC from 1994 to 2016, the students’ device is a miniature version that will be used to show visitors how plasma flows and is confined within the donut-shaped architecture of a tokamak’s design. 

Two men work inside the D3-D tokamak. Text on the image says "Yahoo! Finance Next" and "Unlocking Fusion"

April 1, 2024

"Fusion reactor promises limitless energy"

Check out the exciting work at DIII-D through first-hand experiences of our expert team members in the Yahoo Finance Next series episode on fusion energy. Evan Leppink, a graduate student at Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT, provides insights into the installation of a first-in-kind heating and current drive system.

Yahoo Finance

March 21, 2024

First-of-its-kind report, "Enabling Commercial Fusion" published

A report authored by David Cohen-Tanugi, with contributions from PSFC researchers, was unveiled at the recent FusionXInvest conference hosted at MIT. The report contains nearly 30 opportunities for researchers, investors, and corporations to fill gaps in the burgeoning commercial fusion industry's supply chain.  

An large, flat, oval-shaped metal container with holes in the sides and a large magnet inside placed around a post.

March 4, 2024

Tests show high-temperature superconducting magnets are ready for fusion

In the predawn hours of Sept. 5, 2021, engineers achieved a major milestone in the labs of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), when a new type of magnet, made from high-temperature superconducting material, achieved a world-record magnetic field strength of 20 tesla for a large-scale magnet. That’s the intensity needed to build a fusion power plant that is expected to produce a net output of power and potentially usher in an era of virtually limitless power production.

MIT News

Maria Gatu Johnson in her lab, holding a small gold Hohlraum in a plastic case

February 22, 2024

Maria Gatu-Johnson featured by MIT's ILP

Principal Research Scientist Maria Gatu-Johnson breaks down her work in designing neutron diagnostics for MIT's Industrial Liasion Program.

A mid-plane view of the SPARC tokamak

November 16, 2023

New study shows how universities are critical to emerging fusion industry

A paper by Dennis Whyte, Carlos Paz-Soldan of Columbia University, and Brian D. Wirth of the University of Tennessee Knoxville explores academia's role in the development of fusion energy. The authors cite additional fusion faculty, private industry collaborations, and creative licensing strategies as essential for enabling the sustainable growth of a commercial fusion industry.

PSFC News

A photo grid of six candid and portrait photographs featuring Dennis Whyte in 2011, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2023.

November 7, 2023

Dennis Whyte Steps Down as Director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center

Dennis Whyte, the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, came to MIT in 2006 and has been director of the PSFC since 2015. Over the past nine years, the number of students at the PSFC has grown tremendously, as have the types of partnerships and breadth of research. After stepping down at the end of 2023, Whyte plans to focus on teaching, research, and entrepreneurship at the PSFC. The Vice President of Research is forming a search committee to identify the PSFC's next leader; if a new director isn’t selected by 2024, an Interim Director will be appointed.

PSFC News

Three people smiling and facing a camera as they sign documents

October 27, 2023

PSFC is designated an IAEA Collaborating Center, the first in fusion

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Grossi traveled to MIT to give the David J. Rose Lecture in Nuclear Technology and sign an agreement designating the PSFC as an IAEA Collaborating Center. Over the next four years, Dr. Cristina Rea will execute a workplan that will further the IAEA's "AI in Fusion" initiative by improving access to fusion data and providing educational opportunities for the development of the fusion workforce. 

PSFC News

October 20, 2023

Maria Gatu-Johnson elected APS Division of Plasma Physics Fellow

MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center Principal Research Scientist Maria Gatu Johnson has been elected an American Physical Society (APS) Division of Plasma Physics Fellow for her analysis of the behavior of plasmas in inertial confinement fusion tests, an essential contribution to improving the performance of fusion reactions.

Johan Frenje against an image of a laser- the laser is visible with an orange center, fading to red and then purple. Johan is smiling in the left of the frame; a white man with short sandy hair, wire rimmed glasses, a dark jacket and a light gray button up shirt.

August 8, 2023

Johan Frenje wins Fusion Power Associates 2023 Leadership Award

Johan Frenje, Senior Research Scientist and the Head of the High-Energy-Density Physics (HEDP) Division at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, has been selected as a recipient of the Fusion Power Associates (FPA) 2023 Leadership Award.

Shoma Akamatsu stands to the right of the photo. A window to his left shows a city skyline

July 26, 2023

Shoma Akamatsu receives the Advanced Technology Award

MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center visiting graduate student Shoma Akamatsu has been presented with the Advanced Technology Award. A student at Tohoku University in Japan, Akamatsu came to the PSFC to conduct specialized experiments with Senior Research Scientist Jagadeesh Moodera.

Abhay K Ram, a physics professor at MIT PSFC, smiles as he stands in front of a whiteboard holding a physics textbook.

May 31, 2023

A new mathematical “blueprint” is accelerating fusion device development

How can plasma physicists harness the power of quantum computers? Abhay K. Ram, a PSFC Principal Research Scientist, and his co-authors Efstratios Koukoutsis, Kyriakos Hizanidis, and George Vahala have an answer in their recently published paper called “Dyson maps and unitary evolution for Maxwell equations in tensor dielectric media”.

PSFC News

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