NEWS: Accelerators & detectors

An artist's rendering of a neutron star against the black background of space surrounded by a purple accretion disk and ejecting a bright white stream of x-rays from either pole.

July 31, 2024

Rishabh Datta is recreating celestial X-ray bursts in a lab

Rishabh Datta, a 5th year PhD student who recently defended his thesis, recently published a paper called “Plasmoid formation and strong radiative cooling in a driven magnetic reconnection experiment”. The article, which was an Editor's Suggestion in Physical Review Letters, demonstrated that it's possible to recreate extreme astrophysical evens in a lab. His paper was also featured on the cover of the April issue of Physics of Plasma and was a Research Highlight in Nature Astronomy. 

PSFC News

Zoe Fisher in the laboratory

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 3, 2021

Keeping an eye on the fusion future

"When I actually got into the depths of fusion, seeing what the PSFC was doing - nothing ever compared,” says graduate student Dan Korsun.

PSFC News

August 1, 2019

PSFC physicist Maria Gatu Johnson wins APS award

Research scientist Maria Gatu Johnson, part of the PSFC’s High-Energy-Density Physics Division, will receive the American Physical Society’s Katherine E. Weimer Award, which recognizes outstanding plasma science research by a woman physicist in the early stages of her career.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Julian Picard, MIT

July 31, 2019

Julian Picard: Chopping microwaves, sharpening instincts

Picard's study of the microwaves that speed from the megawatt gyrotron at MIT’s PSFC could lead the way to smaller and more powerful particle accelerators, the kind of finished product Picard finds rewarding.  

PSFC

Members of the HEDP division, MIT

January 28, 2019

Stronger together

Officially entitled the Center for Advanced Nuclear Diagnostics and Platforms for Inertial ICF and HEDP at Omega, NIF and Z, the new Center will focus on the properties of plasma under extreme conditions of temperature, density and pressure.

PSFC

metamaterial, MIT

January 8, 2019

A metamaterial for next generation particle accelerators

Particle accelerators are some of the biggest man-made machines, capable of endowing particles with tera-electron-volts of energy. A group led by Richard Temkin at MIT has designed and tested  a “metamaterial” that offers potential advantages for wakefield acceleration.

Physics

December 26, 2018

Kevin Woller: From student to mentor

“Once you start learning about plasma it points you towards fusion," says research scientist Kevin Woller, recalling his introduction to ion accelerators.

PSFC

Leigh Ann Kesler, MIT

September 25, 2017

VIDEO: Leigh Ann Kesler: Tracking erosion happening inside fusion devices

NSE PhD student, Leigh Ann Kesler who studies at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, dates her interest in fusion from an 11th-grade persuasive writing assignment. Inspired in part by her father’s interest in the potential of nuclear energy, she decided to investigate fusion.

Monica Pham, MIT

September 25, 2017

VIDEO: Monica Pham: Advancing nuclear power and empowering girls

When she was 16, Monica Pham mapped out her future. “My chemistry teacher was talking about how atoms could generate unlimited power,” recalls Pham. “I asked her what kind of person worked in this field, and when she said a nuclear engineer, I decided that’s what I wanted to be.”

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