MIT PhD student Rishabh Datta is gathering measurements of a laboratory-created bow shock, seeking to verify theoretical models. His quest to understand plasma has led him to experiments on pulsed power facilities around the world, including MAGPIE at Imperial College London, and Z at Sandia National Laboratory.
MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center researchers use numerical simulation to evaluate and optimise the proposed design of the Advanced Divertor experiment a compact nuclear fusion machine that packs full-scale reactor power into an R&D testbed.
The High-Energy-Density Physics group at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, including nine former and current MIT students, played a key role in an historic inertial confinement fusion ignition experiment performed in 2021 that achieved fusion ignition for the first time in a laboratory.
Anne White, professor and head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, is a leader in plasma physics and has produced path-breaking fusion research. She's passionate about changing the world with nuclear applications.