“When I look up at the moon with my sweetheart, my wife of 48 years, I imagine that streaming from its dark side are electron holes that my students and I predicted and that we then discovered,” says Ian Hutchinson. “It’s quite sentimental to me.”
PSFC researchers and colleagues are using machine learning to track turbulent structures ("blobs") in fusion plasmas, which can affect the energy generated during fusion reactions.
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.”
It is with great sadness and profound appreciation that we note the passing at age 89, of Dr. Donald Bruce Montgomery, a pioneer in the development and engineering of large-scale electro-magnets.
Noah Mandell, a postdoctoral fellow at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), is one of two recipients of a 2022 Frederick A. Howes Scholar in Computational Science award.
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 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.
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.
PSFC Director Dennis Whyte received a 2022 University of Saskatchewan Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his significant accomplishments since graduating from USask.
New five-year agreement will support SPARC science, increase graduate students and post-docs, and support interdisciplinary work towards fusion power plants
“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
SoE Distinguished Professor of Engineering Anne White answers the question "What did the 2011 Department of Energy Early Career Award allow you to do?"
In this episode of Undecided, after providing a primer on fusion and fission, Matt Ferrell interviews the PSFC's Deputy Director Martin Greenwald about the fusion breakthrough at MIT.
Researchers around the world are trying to figure out if we can recreate the fusion process of the sun here on Earth. If scientists can pull it off, the payoff could be huge: A deep understanding of stellar physics could one day lead to a virtually unlimited supply of clean energy. To discover just how, in this NOVA podcast Dr. Alok Patel hears from PSFC Director Dennis Whyte. The section about MIT's latest contributions to fusion research starts at 12:30.