A team of Columbia Engineering PhD students have been awarded $22,000 for winning a design contest that challenged university teams across the country to accelerate the commercialisation of fusion energy. The Columbia team was composed of PhD students studying plasma physics in the APAM Department, and their work was supported by Columbia research scientist Dr. Oak Nelson.
The Plasma Physics Laboratory at Columbia Engineering is proud to welcome Dr. Elizabeth Paul to the Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics faculty as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Applied Physics.
Last week, Columbia University students, scientists, and faculty presented seventy-one research presentations at the 64th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics held at Spokane, WA.
Columbia University graduate students, scientists, and faculty traveled to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to attend the 63rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics (DPP). This was the first “hybrid” meeting convened by the American Physical Society (APS) since the beginning of the pandemic.
From November 8-12, 2021, over 800 plasma physicists from the U.S. attended in-person and more than 1,200 physicists participated remotely, making the meeting the world’s largest devoted to plasma physics. Members of Columbia University presented 65 presentations on topics ranging from…
A new paper by members of the Plasma Physics Lab was published in Nuclear Fusion describing the use of machine learning methods to reduce the complex multi-dimensional operation space of a tokamak fusion reactor to a much simpler representation.
In tokamak experiments, a disruption is a dramatic event which rapidly terminates a plasma discharge. During a disruption, confinement of the hot plasma inside the reactor chamber is lost, dumping its energy onto the vessel wall and potentially causing damage to the machine through the resulting magnetic force…
Professor Carlos Paz-Soldan has been named recipient of the 2021 Thomas H. Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Physics Research from the American Physical Society (APS). The prestigious award, which honors rising researchers who have accomplished outstanding theoretical, experimental, computational, or technical work across the field, recognizes his “groundbreaking contributions and scientific leadership in the understanding of non-axisymmetric magnetic fields and relativistic electrons in tokamak plasmas.”
“I’m extremely honored to be…
Associate Professor Carlos Paz-Soldan joined the Columbia University’s Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics on January 1, 2021.
Michael E. Mauel, Professor of Applied Physics, received the 2020 Leadership Award from the Fusion Power Associates (FPA) for his outstanding leadership qualities.
The FPA Board recognized the leadership he has provided over several decades to both the scientific community and to national fusion program strategic evaluation and planning efforts. In particular, the Board made note of Prof. Mauel’s significant role as co-chair of the National Academies 2018 study, A Strategic Plan for U.S. Burning Plasma Research, that proposed “the United States should start a national program…
This week, Columbia University fusion scientists and students presented their latest results during the 62nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics. The APS-DPP Annual Meeting is the largest in the world, with more than 2,200 participants reporting the latest research in all areas of fundamental and applied plasma physics. To ensure the safety of all participants, this year’s Annual Meeting was virtual, with lectures presented and recorded over the internet.