NEWS: Anne White

Portrait of Rachel Bielajew

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

Congratulations!

Meet our 2020 graduates

Norman Cao, Daniel Korsun, Adam Kuang, and Pyae Phyo graduate on May 29 in MIT's virtual commencement.

PSFC

IAP fusor workshop inaugurates Nuclear Maker Space

Research engineer Willy Burke had never heard of a “fusor.” Now he has guided the successful creation of 14 fusors, in the process inaugurating a new maker space sponsored by the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, the PSFC, and MIT’s office of Environmental Health and Safety.

PSFC

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

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

Anne White, MIT

Anne White named American Physical Society Fellow

Anne White White is one of four from MIT elected fellows of the American Physical Society (APS) for 2019. The APS fellowship recognizes peers who have contributed to advances in physics through original research, innovative applications, teaching, and leadership.

School of Science

Juan Ruiz Ruiz: The Heat of the Matter

Ruiz is researching how to keep the plasma in a tokamak hot enough for fusion to take place. This is challenging because the hottest particles in the plasma, found in the core, leak towards the cooler areas at the edges, creating a plasma that will not be hot enough to sustain fusion. 

PSFC

Alex Creely receives Itoh Project Prize

NSE graduate student Alex Creely has received the Kyushu University Itoh Project Prize for his poster “Cross-Machine Validation of TGLF and GENE on Alcator C-Mod and ASDEX Upgrade.” The prize recognizes excellence in doctoral student plasma physics research.

PSFC

Pablo Rodriguez Fernandez, MIT

Integrated simulation

A team led by MIT professor Anne White, and NSE graduate student Pablo Rodriguez Fernandez,  has conducted studies that offer a new take on the complex physics of plasma heat transport, and point toward more robust models of fusion plasma behavior.

Nuclear Science and Engineering

Alex Creely, MIT

VIDEO: Alex Creely: Bridging the gap between simulation and reality

In his third year at MIT, Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE) graduate student Alex Creely has figured out enough about the hot, turbulent plasmas necessary for creating fusion energy that his research has been honored with an Innovations in Fuel Cycle Research Award, offered by the Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Technology R&D of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).