NEWS: Alcator C-Mod tokamak

Ian Hutchinson in front of image of C-Mod antennae

October 19, 2022

2022 Ronald C. Davidson Award goes to Ian H. Hutchinson

AIP Publishing has selected MIT Professor Ian H. Hutchinson as the recipient of its 2022 Ronald C. Davidson Award for Plasma Physics for his paper, “Electron holes in phase space: What they are and why they matter.”

AIP Publishing

Photo of John Rice on courtyard bench

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 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

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

Image of Aaron Rosenthal with diagnostic

April 26, 2021

Candid-camera capture

MIT graduate student Aaron Rosenthal and colleagues from PPPL use a pinhole camera technique to answer questions about what is happening in the edge of hot plasmas confined in tokamaks.

PSFC News

Diagram of ARCH concept

April 12, 2021

On course to create a fusion power plant

Since taking on course 22.63 (Principles of Fusion Engineering) over a decade ago Prof. Dennis Whyte has moved away from standard lectures, prodding the class to work collectively on  “real world” issues. The course has been instrumental in guiding the real future of fusion at the PSFC.

PSFC News

January 27, 2020

Nathan Howard wins Nuclear Fusion Award

Nathan Howard, research scientist at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, has won the 2019 Nuclear Fusion Award for a paper that explains heat losses due to turbulence in the core of magnetically confined fusion plasmas.

PSFC

November 22, 2019

Heating by Cooling

As a graduate student Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez (PhD’19) became intrigued by a fusion research mystery that had remained unsolved for 20 years. His novel observations and subsequent modeling helped provide the answer, earning him the 2019 Del Favero Thesis Prize.

PSFC

November 20, 2018

Reaching in and out at the APS DPP meeting

Along with traditional outreach activities the PSFC introduced SPARC for the first time at a scientific conference during technical sessions devoted to MIT’s high-field approach to fusion.

PSFC

August 22, 2018

Pushing the limit

Researchers at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC) have now demonstrated how microwaves can be used to overcome the barriers to steady state tokamak operation. In experiments performed on MIT’s Alcator C-Mod tokamak, research scientist Seung Gyou Baek and his colleagues have studied a method of driving current to heat the plasma called Lower Hybrid Current Drive.

PSFC

May 24, 2018

Rick Leccacorvi receives 2018 Infinite Mile Award

Mechanical design and fabrication specialist Rick Leccacorvi was honored with a 2018 Infinite Mile Award on May 23. His work designing experimental apparatus for physicists and students at the PSFC has received continued enthusiastic appreciation from his peers.

PSFC

May 4, 2018

Spinning data into sound

Prof. Joe Paradiso is using a modular synthesizer to translate data into artful sound – specifically data from one of the final fusion experiments on the Plasma Science and Fusion Center’s (PSFC) Alcator C-Mod tokamak. 

PSFC

April 3, 2018

Theresa Wilks: Fine-tuning fusion on DIII-D

Postdoc Theresa Wilks’s interest lies in the edge of the hot plasma closest to the tokamak’s chamber walls. Changes within these few centimeters, known as the ‘edge pedestal,’ can significantly affect the turbulence in the plasma, possibly leading to better control of the plasma and greater energy production.  

PSFC News

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