NEWS: Richard Petrasso

April 10, 2022

VIDEO: Introduction to Fusion

Could fusion, the process that fuels the sun and stars, be a source of plentiful, clean, carbon-free energy on earth? Learn how fusion occurs, and what researchers around the world are doing to understand the process, and to harness its potential. Narrated by Plasma Science and Fusion Center research scientist Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez.

August 9, 2021

New leadership for PSFC High-Energy-Density Physics division

After 45 years at MIT’s PSFC and 15 years heading their High-Energy-Density Physics (HEDP) Division, Senior Research Scientist Richard Petrasso has stepped down to pursue new research interests.

PSFC News

April 20, 2021

Benjamin Reichelt awarded special Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship

Benjamin Reichelt, a second-year Physics PhD candidate with MIT’s PSFC, has been awarded the Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship (SSGF).

PSFC News

August 25, 2020

Laser-focused: Four undergraduates foster new insights into inertial confinement fusion

From their home offices, four undergraduates this summer made significant contributions to research into high-energy-density physics projects at the PSFC.

PSFC

August 7, 2019

Astrophysical shock phenomena reproduced in laboratory

PSFC's Chikang Li and an international team of researachers have reproduced critical conditions of collisionless shocks in the laboratory, allowing for detailed study of the processes taking place within giant cosmic smashups.

MIT News

February 4, 2019

From summer research program to PhD dissertation

One of the most important aspects of MIT’s educational mission is preparing students to be effective members of their scientific and technological communities. For Raspberry Simpson, that process began when she was a 17-year-old participant in the MIT Summer Research Program.

NSE News

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

November 1, 2017

Twelve from MIT honored by American Physical Society

Three members of MIT's PSFC High-Energy-Density Physics Division Richard Petrasso, Chikang Li, and Fredrick Seguin — were honored with the APS John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research.

School of Science

August 1, 2017

PSFC researchers honored with John Dawson Award

PSFC's Richard Petrasso, Chikang Li, and Fredrick Seguin were selected to share the award for “the pioneering use of proton radiography to reveal new aspects of flows, instabilities, and fields in high-energy-density (HED) plasmas.”

PSFC

February 23, 2017

Hong Sio: On the road for fusion

Graduate student Hong Sio spent 120 days on the road in 2016, visiting the OMEGA laser at the University of Rochester and the National Ignition Facility at Laweremce Livermore National Laboratory, in search of answers about inertial confinement fusion (ICF).

PSFC

January 27, 2017

NNSA visits HEDP Lab

NNSA’s Principal Assistant Deputy Administrator for Military Application Brig. Gen. Michael Lutton and Dr. Njema Frazier, physicist in the NNSA’s Office of Defense Programs, visited the MIT to meet with the High Energy Density and Inertial Confinement Fusion Physics Division of the PSFC. 

NNSA Blog

July 12, 2016

Mike Rosenberg wins Rosenbluth Award

Although Mike Rosenberg received his PhD from MIT in September 2014, his work at the PSFC is still getting attention. Rosenberg has been selected by the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics (APS-DPP) to receive their Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award.

PSFC

February 2, 2016

MIT PhD research advances at the National Ignition Facility

MIT’s IAP brought National Ignition Facility Director Mark Hermann to the PSFC in January to talk about the science behind the inertial confinement fusion experiments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

PSFC

March 4, 2015

MIT graduate students receive prestigious Lawrence award

Graduate students Hans Rinderknecht and Alex Zylstra, members of the MIT Physics Department who both work in the PSFC’s High-Energy-Density (HEDP) division, have each received the Lawrence fellowship.

MIT News

February 1, 2015

NIF-MIT Partnership Mints New PhDs

Working hand-in-hand with LLNL researchers on NIF experiments and diagnostics is proving to be a highly successful academic strategy for recent and current physics PhD students at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

September 24, 2013

Petrasso receives Edward Teller Medal

Richard D. Petrasso, head of the High-Energy-Density Physics (HEDP) Division, received the 2013 Edward Teller Medal for his division’s work in inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density physics.

MIT News