Paulina Texier is a third-year Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), advised by Professor Arvind Narayanaswamy. Her research interests center on sustainable technology, with a particular focus on marine-friendly innovations—a passion inspired by her Miami roots and love for paddle boarding and scuba diving.
Research Focus: Paulina's work involves setting up systems to produce and inject pellets, using diagnostic techniques such as high-speed imaging and microwave cavity resonance to study ablation rates. Shattered pellet injection is one method for disruption and edge-localized mode (ELM) mitigation, as well as core fueling in tokamaks. While the team currently uses hydrogen pellets, future experiments will explore argon and neon mixtures for enhanced fueling potential. In the upcoming summer, Paulina will participate in the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program, where she will prototype and model tritium extraction systems. She aims to apply this experience toward future research into deuterium-tritium pellets for advanced fueling strategies in fusion devices.