Plasma Science and Fusion Center

MIT postdoc Theresa Wilks enjoys time in the DIII-D control room, where she oversees experiments that provide insights about plasma turbulence in fusion tokamaks.

Fine-tuning fusion

Postdoc Theresa Wilks finds home on the west coast, helming an MIT collaboration with the DIII-D tokamak fusion reactor.

April 9, 2018

3Q: Zach Hartwig on MIT's big push on fusion

Researchers will work with industrial collaborators to pursue fusion as a source of carbon-free power.

March 9, 2018

Visualization of the proposed SPARC tokamak experiment. Using high-field magnets built with newly available high-temperature superconductors, this experiment would be the first controlled fusion plasma to produce net energy output.

MIT and newly formed company launch novel approach to fusion power

Goal is for research to produce a working pilot plant within 15 years.

March 9, 2018

Pablo Rodriguez Fernandez, first author of the study and a graduate student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Integrated simulations answer 20-year-old question in fusion research

Study finds that turbulence competes in fusion plasmas to rapidly respond to temperature perturbations.

February 16, 2018

“The kind of engineering that I want to do is the kind that can change people’s lives for the better,” says MIT senior Nick Schwartz.

Changing lives with heart, humor, and engineering

MIT senior and Marshall Scholar Nick Schwartz wants to solve the energy problem — and make people smile along the way.

January 3, 2018

Research Engineer Dongkeun Park (right) and his colleague Juan Bascuñán wind a double-pancake coil with high-temperature superconductor.

Dongkeun Park: Winding his way to medical insights

Francis Bitter Magnet Lab researcher continues a decades-long pursuit to create a revolutionary magnet for nuclear magnetic resolution spectroscopy.

December 22, 2017

Magnetic reconnection is a complicated phenomenon that Nuno Loureiro, an associate professor of nuclear science and engineering and of physics at MIT, has been studying in detail for more than a decade. To explain the process, he gives a well-studied example: “If you watch a video of a solar flare” as it arches outward and then collapses back onto the sun’s surface, “that’s magnetic reco...

Study sheds light on turbulence in astrophysical plasmas

Theoretical analysis uncovers new mechanisms in plasma turbulence.

December 1, 2017

Left to right: MEET facilitators Ted Golfinopoulos, a PSFC research scientist, and graduate students Adam Kuang and Alex Tinguely spent time in Israel as part of program that provides a safe place for Israeli and Palestinian high school students to become colleagues in the study of science, technology, and entrepreneurship.

Bridging the divide with technology

Three from the Plasma Science and Fusion Center spend time with the Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow.

November 14, 2017

MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center principal research scientist Robert Granetz.

3 Questions: Robert Granetz on fusion research

MIT research scientist is exploring how machine learning can predict and prevent disruptions in reactors.

October 10, 2017

“I like to say I build fancy thermometers. That’s my job,” says Alex Creely, a graduate student in nuclear science and engineering who works in the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT.

Alex Creely: Bridging the simulation vs. reality gap

Nuclear science and engineering graduate student receives Department of Energy Innovation Award for his work on plasma turbulence.

September 29, 2017

Incoming freshman Kaylee de Soto got a head start at MIT, arriving in June to help the Plasma Science and Fusion Center update its fusion video game.

Kaylee de Soto: A game changer

Incoming freshman refreshes Plasma Science and Fusion Center outreach tools.

September 6, 2017

Graduate student Leigh Ann Kesler researches the effects of hot plasma on the interiors of fusion devices using a 2 megavolt electrostatic accelerator called DANTE in the Vault Laboratory for Nuclear Science at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

Measuring depths, scaling heights

When not climbing mountains, nuclear science and engineering PhD candidate Leigh Ann Kesler tracks erosion inside fusion reactor containment chambers.

August 31, 2017

The interior of the Alcator C-Mod tokamak, where experiments were conducted that have helped create a new scenario for heating plasma and achieving fusion.

Fusion heating gets a boost

The Plasma Science and Fusion Center explores a new recipe for heating plasma.

August 21, 2017

Left to right: Chikang Li, Richard Petrasso and Fredrick Seguin perform research in the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center's High-Energy-Density Physics Accelerator Facility, which develops and characterizes nuclear diagnostics for inertial fusion facilities across the country. Petrasso notes, "This lab is important in training undergrads and grads. It allows them to build and develop an array o...

Three MIT scientists honored with John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research

Plasma Science and Fusion Center researchers Petrasso, Seguin, and Li honored for developing a novel radiography technique.

August 2, 2017

“We now strongly believe that these magnetic fields critically affect structure formation in the universe — they are critical to shaping the world as we see it," says Associate Professor Nuno Loureiro.

Probing the magnetic universe

Nuclear Science and Engineering Associate Professor Nuno Loureiro ponders the origins of magnetic fields.

June 23, 2017

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