Sean Ballinger

Biography

Sean Ballinger is a postdoctoral associate at MIT's department of Nuclear Science and Engineering interested in developing fusion into a source of clean and abundant energy. His research is in characterizing the turbulence at the edge of plasmas in the W7-X stellarator in Germany and in simulating divertor scenarios to explore heat exhaust solutions for the SPARC tokamak concept.

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2022
PhD in Applied Plasma Physics

Thesis title: Modeling of Boundary Transport and Divertor Target Heat Flux - Implications for Advanced Divertor Concepts
Columbia University, New York, New York, 2016
Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics, minor in Computer Science

Awards

National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Honorable Mention, 2016
APS-DPP Outstanding Undergraduate Poster Award, 2014
Robert Gross Scholarship in Applied Physics, 2014–16
NASA Aeronautics Scholarship Undergraduate Awardee, 2013–15
Columbia University Egleston Research Scholar, 2012–16
Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist, 2012

Research

MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, 2022–Present
Postdoctoral Associate

• Experimental diagnostics: Developing and running the MIT gas-puff imaging diagnostic for edge turbulence analysis in the W7-X stellarator.
• Tokamak edge simulation: Using the SOLPS-ITER code to investigate divertor scenarios for the SPARC tokamak concept.​

MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, 2016–2022PhD Candidate

• Used the UEDGE code to simulate plasma edge and divertor scenarios in the Alcator C-Mod and SPARC tokamaks.
• Contributed to the installation and operation of the MIT high-speed camera and gas puff imaging diagnostic systems on W7-X.

MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, Summer 2015
Egleston Scholarship Intern
Operated and analyzed data from a high-speed camera imaging plasma turbulence in the X-point region of the Alcator C-Mod tokamak.

General Atomics DIII-D, Summer 2014
National Undergraduate Fellowship Intern
Augmented a simulation of the KSTAR tokamak with a feedback plasma control system and automated the tuning of its PID controller gain settings.

NASA Ames Research Center, Summer 2013
New York Space Grant Intern
Ran fluid simulations of the Aurora D8 aircraft concept. Validated the new Launch Ascent and Vehicle Aerodynamics fluid code with wind tunnel simulations.

Columbia University High-Beta Tokamak, 2013–2016
Egleston Scholarship Intern
Machined and assembled parts of a capacitor bank power supply for a magnetic coil and wrote code to reconstruct the plasma current profile in the High-Beta Tokamak from magnetic sensor data.

Publications

First-author publications

S. B. Ballinger, J. L. Terry, S. G. Baek, K. Tang, A. von Stechow, C. Killer, D. Nicolai, G. Satheeswaran, P. Drews, and O. Grulke, “Fast camera imaging of plasmas in Alcator C-Mod and W7-X,” Nuclear Materials and Energy, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2018.11.015  

S. B. Ballinger, J. L. Terry, S. G. Baek, M. Beurskens, K. J. Brunner, G. Fuchert, J. Knauer, C. Killer, E. Pasch, K. Rahbarnia, J. Schilling, E. Scott, A. von Stechow, H. Thomsen, O. Grulke, G. Wurden, G. Kocsis, T. Szepesi, and L. Zsuga, “Dynamics and dependencies of the configuration-dependent 1–2 kHz fluctuation in W7-X,” Nuclear Materials and Energy, vol. 27, p. 100 967, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2021.100967

S. B. Ballinger, A. Q. Kuang, M. V. Umansky, D. Brunner, J. M. Canik, M. J. Greenwald, J. D. Lore, B. LaBombard, J. L. Terry, and M. Wigram, “Simulation of the SPARC plasma boundary with the UEDGE code,” Nuclear Fusion, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ac0c2f

S. Ballinger, D. Brunner, A. Hubbard, J. Hughes, A. Kuang, B. LaBombard, J. Terry, and A. White, “Dependence of the boundary heat flux width on core and edge profiles in Alcator C-Mod,” Nuclear Fusion, vol. 62, no. 7, p. 076 020, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ac637c

Co-authored publications

J. L. Terry, S. Ballinger, D. Brunner, B. LaBombard, A. E. White, and S. J. Zweben, “Fast imaging of filaments in the X-point region of Alcator C-Mod,” Nuclear Materials and Energy, Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Plasma Surface Interactions 2016, 22nd PSI, vol. 12, pp. 989–993, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nme.2016.11.020

T. Klinger et al., “Overview of first Wendelstein 7-X high-performance operation,” Nuclear Fusion, vol. 59, no. 11, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ab03a7

R. A. Tinguely, A. Rosenthal, R. Simpson, S. B. Ballinger, A. J. Creely, S. Frank, A. Q. Kuang, B. L. Linehan, W. McCarthy, L. M. Milanese, K. J. Montes, T. Mouratidis, J. F. Picard, P. Rodriguez-Fernandez, A. J. Sandberg, F. Sciortino, E. A. Tolman, M. Zhou, B. N. Sorbom, Z. S. Hartwig, and A. E. White, “Neutron diagnostics for the physics of a high-field, compact, Q≥1 tokamak,” Fusion Engineering and Design, vol. 143, pp. 212–225, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2019.03.148

A. J. Creely, L. M. Milanese, E. A. Tolman, J. H. Irby, S. B. Ballinger, S. Frank, A. Q. Kuang, B. L. Linehan, W. McCarthy, K. J. Montes, T. Mouratidis, J. F. Picard, P. Rodriguez-Fernandez, A. M. Rosenthal, A. J. Sandberg, F. Sciortino, R. A. Simpson, R. A. Tinguely, M. Zhou, and A. E. White, “Design study of a combined interferometer and polarimeter for a high-field, compact tokamak,” Physics of Plasmas, vol. 27, no. 4, p. 042 516, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5142638

A. J. Creely, M. J. Greenwald, S. B. Ballinger, D. Brunner, J. Canik, J. Doody, T. Fülöp, D. T. Garnier, R. Granetz, T. K. Gray, C. Holland, N. T. Howard, J. W. Hughes, J. H. Irby, V. A. Izzo, G. J. Kramer, A. Q. Kuang, B. LaBombard, Y. Lin, B. Lipschultz, N. C. Logan, J. D. Lore, E. S. Marmar, K. Montes, R. T. Mumgaard, C. Paz-Soldan, C. Rea, M. L. Reinke, P. Rodriguez-Fernandez, K. Särkimäki, F. Sciortino, S. D. Scott, A. Snicker, P. B. Snyder, B. N. Sorbom, R. Sweeney, R. A. Tinguely, E. A. Tolman, M. Umansky, O. Vallhagen, J. Varje, D. G. Whyte, J. C. Wright, S. J. Wukitch, J. Zhu, and the SPARC Team, “Overview of the SPARC tokamak,” Journal of Plasma Physics, vol. 86, no. 5, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022377820001257

A. Q. Kuang, S. Ballinger, D. Brunner, J. Canik, A. J. Creely, T. Gray, M. Greenwald, J. W. Hughes, J. Irby, B. LaBombard, B. Lipschultz, J. D. Lore, M. L. Reinke, J. L. Terry, M. Umansky, D. G. Whyte, S. Wukitch, and the SPARC Team, “Divertor heat flux challenge and mitigation in SPARC,” Journal of Plasma Physics, vol. 86, no. 5, p. 865 860 505, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022377820001117

P. Rodriguez-Fernandez, A. J. Creely, M. J. Greenwald, D. Brunner, S. B. Ballinger, C. P. Chrobak, D. T. Garnier, R. Granetz, Z. S. Hartwig, N. T. Howard, J. W. Hughes, J. H. Irby, V. A. Izzo, A. Q. Kuang, Y. Lin, E. S. Marmar, R. T. Mumgaard, C. Rea, M. L. Reinke, V. Riccardo, J. E. Rice, S. D. Scott, B. N. Sorbom, J. A. Stillerman, R. Sweeney, R. A. Tinguely, D. G. Whyte, J. C. Wright, and D. V. Yuryev, “Overview of the SPARC physics basis towards the exploration of burning-plasma regimes in high-field, compact tokamaks,” Nuclear Fusion, vol. 62, no. 4, p. 042 003, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ac1654

T. S. Pedersen et al., “Experimental confirmation of efficient island divertor operation and successful neoclassical transport optimization in Wendelstein 7-X,” Nuclear Fusion, vol. 62, no. 4, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/ac2cf5