Plasma Physics Colloquium

Coordinator: Professor Carlos Paz-Soldan

Most seminars will be offered in a hybrid format. If you prefer to attend remotely, please email [email protected] ahead of time for the Zoom link.

Friday, September 15, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd
Ken Hammond, PPPL
"Improved stellarator permanent magnet designs through combined discrete and continuous optimizations"

Friday, September 22, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 227 Mudd
Sam Wurzel, ARPA-E - Department of Energy
"How the Lawson Criterion explains the approaches being pursued by today’s fusion energy companies"

Friday, September 29, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 227 Mudd
Richard Buttery, General Atomics
"DIII-D’s Role in the Commercialization Agenda for Fusion"

Friday, October 6, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 227 Mudd
Carolyn Kuranz, University of Michigan
"Creating Astrophysically Relevant Systems in the Laboratory in the High-Energy-Density Regime"

Friday, October 13, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 227 Mudd
Troy Carter, University of California, Los Angeles
"Plasma wave studies using the Basic Plasma Science Facility"

Note:
No seminars between October 14th and November 2nd

Friday, November 10, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 227 Mudd
David Gates, Thea Energy
"Thea Energy: Reinventing the stellarator"

Friday, November 17, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 227 Mudd
Nuno Louriero, MIT
"Quantum Computing for Plasma Physics: Challenges and Opportunities"

Friday, November 24, 2023
No Seminar

Friday, December 1, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 227 Mudd
Adelle Wright, University of Wisconsin
"Recent advances in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics and the application to stellarators for fusion energy"

Friday, December 8, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 227 Mudd
Paul Humrickhouse, ORNL
"Production and extraction of tritium from breeding blankets"

Friday, January 26, 2024   
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd
Alan Kaptanoglu, NYU
"Sparse regression and local basis functions in stellarator optimization problems"

Friday, February 2, 2024   
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
Hyeon Park, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Korea &
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), USA
"New Aspects of Confinement, Stability and Ignition of the Magnetic Fusion Plasma"

Friday, February 9, 2024   
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
Darren Garnier, Open Star Technologies
"OpenStar: Exploring the levitated dipole as a fusion device"

Friday, February 16, 2024   
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
Brandon Sorbom, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
"Next-generation Superconducting Magnets for Fusion Energy"

Friday, February 23, 2024
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
Arturo Dominguez, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
"Bringing people to fusion and taking fusion to the people: Public engagement and workforce development efforts at PPPL"

Friday, March 1, 2024
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
Yong-Su Na, Seoul National University
"A new regime to "FIRE" fusion plasmas toward long sustained and high-performance reactor conditions"

Friday, March 8, 2024
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
Raffi Nazikian, General Atomics
"Developing a World-Wide Data Science Ecosystem for Accelerating Fusion Research”

Friday, April 5, 2024
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
George McKee, UW-Madison
"Turbulence in Magnetically Confined Plasmas: The What, Why, Where, When and How"  

Friday, April 12, 2024
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
Leigh Winfrey, SUNY Maritime
"Fusion Technology: Recent Advances, Continuing Challenges, and Ongoing Research"

Friday, April 19, 2024 - 2 talks
10:30 AM, 633 Mudd
Matthias Willensdorfer, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
"3D dimensional effects in Tokamaks"      
&
3:00 PM ET, 825 Mudd
Mitchell Walker, Georgia Technology
"Challenges Predicting the Lifetime of Hall Thrusters"

Wednesday, April 24, 2024
12:00-1:00 PM, Room 214 Mudd
Trey Gehbart, Oak Ridge National Lab
"The ITER Disruption Mitigation System: Engineering Design and Physics Basis”Friday, May 10, 2024
3:00-4:00 PM, Room 214 Mudd
Geert Verdoolaege, University of Ghent
"Bayesian Probability for Integrated Data Analysis and Pattern Recognition in Fusion Devices"  

Friday, July 12, 2024
3:00-4:00 PM, 327 Mudd
Jason R. Trelewicz, Stony Brook University
"Stabilizing Tungsten through Synergistic Compositional Complexities for Enhancing Divertor Armor Performance"
 

Coordinator: Professor Carlos Paz-Soldan

If you prefer to attend remotely, please email [email protected] ahead of time for the Zoom link.

Friday, September 9, 2022
10:00 AM ET, Online only
Rachael McDermott, Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik
"Validation of low-Z impurity transport theory using boron perturbation experiments in ASDEX Upgrade"

Friday, September 16, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Felix Parra-Diaz, Princeton University
"Collisional transport in large aspect ratio stellarators"

Friday, September 23, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Theresa Wilks, MIT
"Leveraging Peeling Pedestal Physics in the Super H-Mode as a Platform for Integrated Core-Edge Studies"

Friday, September 30, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Brian Grierson, General Atomics
"General Atomics Plans for an Advanced Tokamak Fusion Pilot Plant"

Friday, October 7, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Jack Hare, MIT
"Pulsed-Power-Driven Plasma Physics at MIT"

Friday, October 14, 2022
No seminar

Friday, October 21, 2022
No seminar

Friday, October 28, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Matthew Lanctot, US DOE
"Impact of Stakeholder Input on the Fusion Energy Sciences Program"

Friday, November 4, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Cary Forest, University of Wisconsin
"The physics basis for a Q≈1 high-field, compact, axisymmetric mirror"

Friday, November 11, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Mickey Wade, ORNL
"ORNL’s Role in Enabling an Aggressive Path to Fusion Energy"

Friday, November 18, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Greg Howes, University of Iowa
"Probing Particle Energization in Weakly Collisional Plasmas using the Field-Particle Correlation Technique"

Friday, December 2, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Luca Comisso, Columbia University
"From Turbulence to Reconnection to Particle Acceleration: Connecting the Dots"

Friday, December 9, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Riccardo Betti, University of Rochester
"Thermonuclear ignition and next steps in laser-driven inertial confinement fusion and inertial fusion energy"

_____________________

Friday, January 27, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Egemen Kolemen, Princeton University
"Overview of Fusion Research at Plasma Control Group"

Thursday, February 9, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd
Ben Levitt, Zap Energy, Inc.
"A Random Walk from Academia to Industry: Jovian Plasma Bubbles, cryogenic antimatter, nuclear well-logging & commercial fusion"

Friday, February 10, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Ethan Peterson, Plasma Science and Fusion Center, MIT
"OpenMC: a one-stop-shop for fusion neutronics"

Friday, February 17, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez, MIT
"Core transport and performance of burning plasmas in the SPARC tokamak"

Friday, March 3, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 327 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Amy Roma, Hogan Lovells

Friday, March 10, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 327 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Fatima Ebrahimi, PPPL

Friday, March 24, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 327 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Sasha Phillipov, University of Maryland
"Fireworks produced by extreme plasmas near neutron stars and black holes"

Monday, March 27, 2023
3:00 PM, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Eve Stenson, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
"Advances on the path to confined matter-antimatter plasmas"

Friday, April 14, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 327 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Steve Cowley, PPPL
"Stability and Meta-stability a challenge for fusion"

Friday, April 21, 2023
3:00 PM ET, Please note the room change - 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Saskia Mordijck, William & Mary
"The plasma density from the bottom up" 

Friday, April 28, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 327 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Bruce Remington, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
"New regimes of high energy density (HED) experimental science on the Omega and NIF laser facilities"
(abstract with references)

Friday, May 23, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Jose Lopez, Seton Hall University
“Low Temperature Plasma Technologies and Applications”

Monday, July 17, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
H. R. Strauss, HRS Fusion
"Resistive Wall Tearing Mode Disruptions and HBT-EP"

Wednesday, August 2, 2023
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd
Matt Landreman, University of Maryland (hybrid seminar)
"Efficient calculation of self-force, internal magnetic field, and stored energy for electromagnetic coils"

Most seminars will take place online, unless otherwise noted. A Zoom link will be distributed by email a few days before the event. You may also request the Zoom link for a seminar by sending an email to [email protected]. At this time, only Columbia University ID-holders and approved guests are invited to in-person talks. All others are invited to attend remotely.

Friday, September 17, 2021
10:30 AM ET (virtual)
Elizabeth Paul, Princeton University
"Adjoint methods for stellarator shape optimization"

Friday, December 10, 2021
10:30 AM ET (virtual)
Thomas Sunn Pedersen, Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
"Highlights and updates from Wendelstein 7-X"

Friday, December 17, 2021
3:00 PM ET (virtual)
Nicholas Eidietis, General Atomics
"Prospects for Disruption Handling in a Commercial Tokamak Fusion Reactor"

Friday, January 28, 2022
3:00 PM ET (virtual)
Robert Wilcox, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
"Poking the Pedestal: Progress and Potential of Pellet ELM Pacing"

Friday, February 11, 2022
3:00 PM ET (virtual)
Chris Hansen, University of Washington
"Developing a hierarchy of predictive modeling tools for plasma dynamics with application to the understanding, design and control of magnetized plasmas"

Friday, February 18, 2022
3:00 PM ET (virtual)
Steven Sabbagh, Columbia Engineering
"Tokamak Disruption Event Characterization and Forecasting (DECAF) and Progress on Real-Time Implementation"
Presentation slides

Friday, February 25, 2022
3:00 PM ET (virtual)
Brendan Lyons, General Atomics
"Predicting Stability and Performance of Tokamak Plasmas Using Flexible, Integrated Modeling"

Friday, March 4, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Alexander Creely, Commonwealth Fusion Systems
"SPARC, ARC, and the Path to Commercial Fusion Power"

Friday, March 11, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
David Gates, PPPL
"Recent Advances in Stellarator Optimization looking forward to Fusion Pilot Plant Designs"

Friday, April 1, 2022
3:00 PM ET (virtual)
Cami Collins, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
"Controlling and Predicting Fast-Ion Transport in a Steady-State Tokamak Scenario" 

Friday, April 8, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Nikolas Logan, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
"How to best break the symmetry of tokamaks"

Friday, April 15, 2022
3:00 PM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid seminar)
Rajesh Maingi & Andrei Khodak, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
"Liquid metal plasma facing components for fusion devices"

Friday, April 22, 2022
3:00 PM, (virtual)
Brian Grierson, General Atomics
“Advances in Measuring and Understanding Plasma Rotation in the DIII-D Tokamak”

Friday, April 29, 2022
10:30 AM ET (virtual)
Christian Theiler, Swiss Plasma Center
"Alternative divertors for improved tokamak operation"

Thursday, June 2, 2022
11:00 AM ET, 214 Mudd (hybrid)
Carles Corbella, George Washington University
Synthesis of Nanomaterials by Atmospheric Arc Plasmas   

Fall 2020 seminars will take place via Zoom

Coordinators: Michael Mauel & Gerald Navratil

10/4/19: Thomas Pedersen, Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
“Recent Results from the Stellarator Wendelstein 7-X”

10/10/19: Carlos Paz-Soldan, General Atomics
“The Measurement and Control of Relativistic Electrons in Tokamaks”

11/1/19: Egemen Kolemen, Princeton University
“Engineering Solutions for Fusion Energy: Control and Liquid Metals”

11/8/19: Kenneth Hammond, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
“Drift effects on W7-X edge heat and particle fluxes”

11/14/19: Seth Dorfman, UCLA
“Nature's Keys: Using Basic Plasma Physics to Unlock our World”

12/5/19: Carey Forest, UW-Madison University of Wisconsin, Madison
“Shocks, Winds and Reconnection in the Big Red Ball”

8/26/19: Prabhakar Srivastav, Institute for Plasma Research
"Study of Plasma Transport due to Electron Temperature Gradient Induced Turbulence in Large Volume Plasma Device"

10/4/19: Thomas Pederson, Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics
"Recent results from the stellarator Wendelstein 7-X"

12/4/19: Carey Forest, University of Wisconsin, Madison
"Shocks, Winds and Reconnection in the Big Red Ball”

2/28/20: Stuart Hudson, Princeton Plasma Physics Lab
"Can Constructing “Chaotic coordinates” Help to Understand Transport in Non-Integrable Dynamical Systems?"

10/30/18: Rod Boswel, Australian National University
“Plasma Based Small Propulsion Systems for Cubesats”

11/16/18: Tanim Islam, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
“Charge Exchange in High Altitude Nuclear Explosions”

12/14/2018: Matthias Werl, Columbia University
“Interpretation of synergy in CNT plasma start-up by combined use of a plasma gun and microwaves”

1/25/18: Peiro Martin, University of Padova and Consorzio RFX
“The New Divertor Tokamak Test Facility Project”

3/1/19: Snezhana Abarzhi, The University of Western Australia
“High energy density plasmas, fluid instabilities and interfacial mixing”

4/18/19: Yitzhak Maron, Weizmann Institute of Science
“Experimental determination of the ion temperature in High-Energy-Density plasmas”

4/19/19: Jonathan Menard, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
“NSTX-U Recovery and Ideas for Next-Step Low-A Tokamaks”

4/26/19: Igor Kaganovich, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
“Fundamental Study of Synthesis of Carbon and Boron Nitride Nanostructures in Atmospheric Pressure Arc Discharges”

8/26/19: Prabhakar Srivastav, Institute for Plasma Research
“Study of Plasma Transport due to Electron Temperature Gradient Induced Turbulence in Large Volume Plasma Device”