News Archive
A subcommittee convened by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) to develop a long-range plan for FES has released its final report that lays out a strategic plan for fusion energy and plasma science research over the next decade.
When fast-moving particles from the sun strike the Earth’s magnetic field, they set off reactions that could disrupt communications satellites and power grids. Now, scientists at the U.S.
The legendary radio telescope at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico collapsed on Dec. 1, sending shock waves throughout the astronomy and astrophysics communities.
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) received two national awards for its sustainability efforts this year for instituting a more sustainable water treatment method that is safer for wildlife and for its green electronics purchasing.
Scientists at the U.S.
The U.S.
A computer platform developed by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory physicist Arturo Dominguez and others that allows users all over the world to operate a real plasma experiment from their living rooms was among 10 winners chosen by an international science committee as a cutting-edge digital
Scientific discoveries, educational opportunities and wide-ranging events highlighted the 62nd American Physical Society-Division of Plasma Physics annual meeting, which attracted participants from around the world.
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) welcomed more than 160 people to a virtual Industry Day when business owners learned about opportunities to partner with the national laboratory on major upcoming projects over the next decade, including a new research building – the Princeton Plasma
During his 19 years in three branches of the military, Guillaume LaForest has worked on F-14 Tomcats fighter aircraft, traveled to Afghanistan and Kuwait, and served on several bases around the country from Fort Hood, Texas, to Fort Dix, New Jersey.
A new method for verifying a widely held but unproven theoretical explanation of the formation of stars and planets has been proposed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).
Physicist Sam Cohen of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and three collaborators have received the New Jersey Research & Development Council’s 2020 Thomas Edison Patent Award for Emerging Technology for their invention of a compact rocket engine thruster propelled by a small fusi
An invention to apply plasma to frequently touched items for continuous disinfection could provide a safe, effective, non-chemical way to reduce pathogens on various surfaces such as keypads, escalator handrails, and other high-touch surfaces, inventors at the U.S.
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) physicist Erik Gilson won third place at the Princeton University Keller Center’s 15th Annual Innovation Forum for his invention with a team of PPPL researchers of an advanced liquid centrifuge.
Elena Belova, a principal research physicist whose work has advanced key areas of fusion research in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), has been elected a 2020 Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).
Students attending the third annual graduate summer school at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) gathered virtually, due to travel restrictions, to get a broad overview of the field of plasma physics.
The American Nuclear Society (ANS) has bestowed its distinguished Nuclear Historic Landmark designation on the pioneering Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) that ran from 1982 to 1997 at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
Bringing the power of the sun to Earth requires sound theory, good engineering, and a little finesse.
Above, clockwise from top left: Neilson, left, at the 2017 SOFE Conference in Shanghai, which he chaired; Neilson with Ivan Vargas-Blanco, a former visiting scientist at PPPL who is head of the Plasma Laboratory for Fusion Energy and Applications at the Costa Rica Institute of Technology in C
Summer is usually the time when student interns flock to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) to learn about fusion and plasma physics at a national laboratory.
The U.S.
World-class expertise in confining and stabilizing the plasma that fuels fusion reactions has brought two new public-private collaborations to the U.S.
Bringing to Earth the virtually unlimited fusion energy that powers the sun and stars requires modeling the hot, charged
An international team of researchers led by the U.S.
Picture strong wind blowing against a tree until it’s knocked down.
Bill Dorland, a renowned computational physicist at the University of Maryland has been named to the new position of associate laboratory director for computational science at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL).
Egemen Kolemen, an assistant professor in Princeton University’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a physicist who focuses on solving challenges to the development of fusion faciliti
A dozen undergraduate students spent the afternoon doing experiments aimed at teaching them some fundamentals about electromagnets through the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s (PPPL) Undergraduate Workshop in Plasma Physics, but instead of sitting at laboratory tables the students built smal
Picture an airplane that can only climb to one or two altitudes after taking off.
Scientists have found a novel way to prevent pesky magnetic bubbles in plasma from interfering with fusion reactions – delivering a potential way to improve the performance of fusion energy devices.
Lithium, the silvery metal that powers smart phones and helps treat bipolar disorders, could also play a significant role in the worldwide effort to harvest on Earth the safe, clean and virtually limitless f
An early career physicist with a strong background in plasma physics who is focused on laser-based diagnostics has been appointed to a fellowship that honors pioneering physicist Robert A. Ellis Jr.
Exploration of the processes behind supernova shockwaves has won Will Fox, a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), the John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research.
Physicist Yuan Shi, who received his doctorate from the Princeton Program in Plasma Physics in 2018, has won the prestigious 2020 Marshall N. Rosenbluth Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award presented by the American Physical Society (APS).
Scientists at the U.S.
Barbara Harrison, PPPL’s new equity, diversity and inclusion business partner, has made an effort to hire a more diverse staff as a talent acquisition specialist at PPPL for the past two years.
The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s internship programs have gone virtual with 47 interns from all over the U.S. working on projects remotely and hundreds tuning in to a virtual introductory course in plasma physics and fusion energy.
Travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic are transforming, with pluses and minuses, scientific conferences around the world. Take the Coordinated Working Group Meeting (CWGM), an international event cohosted by the U.S.
A challenge to creating fusion energy on Earth is trapping the charged gas known as plasma that fuels fusion reactions within a strong magnetic field and keeping the plasma as hot and dense as possible for as long as possible. Now, scientists at the U.S.
One way that scientists seek to bring to Earth the fusion process that powers the sun and stars is trapping hot, charged plasma gas within a twisting magnetic coil device shaped like a breakfast cruller.
From fresh insight into the capture and control on Earth of fusion energy that drives the sun and stars, to the launch of pioneering new initiatives, groundbreaking research and discoveries have marked the past year at the U.S.
Matthew Kunz, an assistant professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University and a physicist at the U.S.
All efforts to replicate in tokamak fusion facilities the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars must cope with a constant problem — transient heat bursts that can halt fusion reactions and damage the doughnut-shaped tokamaks.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has launched engineering design activity on several plasma diagnostic systems for ITER, the international fusion experiment now under construction in France.
Elizabeth Paul, developer of a groundbreaking method for optimizing magnetic confinement stellarator fusion facilities, has won a Princeton University Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship to advance the method at the U.S.
As the Earth orbits the sun, it plows through a stream of fast-moving particles that can interfere with satellites and global positioning systems. Now, a team of scientists at the U.S.
Vincent Graber, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering at Lehigh University, has won a highly competitive award from the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) that he will use to conduct research at the DOE’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) on the design of a critical device to help bri
Blobs can wreak havoc in plasma required for fusion reactions. This bubble-like turbulence swells up at the edge of fusion plasmas and drains heat from the edge, limiting the efficiency of fusion reactions in doughnut-shaped fusion facilities called “tokamaks.” Researchers at the U.S.
A major roadblock to producing safe, clean and abundant fusion energy on Earth is the lack of detailed understanding of how the hot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions behaves at the edge of fusion facilities called “tokamaks.” Recent breakthroughs by researchers at the U.S.
Mike Bonkalski, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s (PPPL) new head of Environment, Safety, and Health (ES&H), brings almost 30 years of experience at two national laboratories to the position that oversees health and safety at a crucial time for the Laboratory as it begins several majo
David Graves, an internationally-known chemical engineer, has been named to lead a new research enterprise that will explore plasma applications in nanotechnology for everything from semiconductor manufacturing to the next generation of super-fast quantum computers.
More than 100 PPPL parents and children attended the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Take Your Daughters and Sons to Work (at Home) Day on April 23 to watch plasma experiments and find out about science experiments they can do at home. (The experiments are listed below).
More than 125 staff members at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) virtual celebration of Earth Day on April 22 celebrated the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, which focused attention on the need to reduce pollution and become more sustainable, and recognized PPPL staff who ar
A key challenge to capturing and controlling fusion energy on Earth is maintaining the stability of plasma — the electrically charged gas that fuels fusion reactions — and keeping it millions of degrees
Ian Ochs, a graduate student in the Program in Plasma Physics, has won a Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellowship, the most prestigious of the honorific fellowships that the University awards annually for academic excellence.
A key issue for scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth is forecasting the performance of the volatile plasma that fuels fusion reactions. Making such predictions calls for considerable costly time on the world’s fastest supercomputers.
Carefully manipulating the outer skin of plasma can create cascades of effects that help create the stability needed to sustain fusion reactions, scientists have found. The research, led by physicist Dylan Brennan of the U.S.
Mercury, the planet nearest the sun, shares with Earth the distinction of being one of the two mountainous planets in the solar system with a global magnetic field that shields it from cosmic rays and the solar wind.
Scientists seeking to bring the fusion that powers the sun and stars to Earth must deal with sawtooth instabilities — up-and-down swings in the central pressure and temperature of the plasma that fuels fusion reactions, similar to the serrated blades of a saw. If these swings are large enough, t
Creating and controlling on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars is a key goal of scientists around the world. Production of this safe, clean and limitless energy could generate electricity for all humanity, and the possibility is growing closer to reality.
An international team of scientists led by a graduate student at the U.S.
In an abundance of caution around the coronavirus pandemic, and in light of presumptive cases in the Princeton area, the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is curtailing operations and sending employees home to work effective 5 p.m.
Women contribute to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s mission in every department, whether it’s in Engineering, Research, or Operations, Click here to view o
Permanent magnets akin to those used on refrigerators could speed the development of fusion energy – the same energy produced by the sun and stars.
Researchers have found that injecting pellets of hydrogen ice rather than puffing hydrogen gas improves fusion performanceat the DIII-D National Fusion Facility, which General Atomics operates for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The New Jersey Regional Science Bowl final contests Feb. 21 and 22 at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory were nail-biters to the end with Princeton Charter School and Ridge High School, of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, battling it out to win the right to compete in the U.S.
Researchers at the U.S.
A key hurdle facing fusion devices called stellarators — twisty facilities that seek to harness on Earth the fusion reactions that power the sun and stars — has been their limited ability to maintain the heat and performance of the plasma that fuels those reactions.
Magnetic field lines that wrap around the Earth protect our planet from cosmic rays. Researchers at the U.S.
Like most teams preparing for a big competition, the 16 middle school teams and 32 high school teams coming to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) on Feb.
What a decade it’s been for fusion and plasma physics research at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)!
A long-standing puzzle in space science is what triggers fast magnetic reconnection, an explosive process that unfolds throughout the universe more rapidly than theory says it should.
What does the future hold for the development of fusion energy as a safe, clean and virtually limitless source of power to generate electricity? To find out, the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment at Princeton University spoke with Steve Cowley, director of the U.S.
The American Physical Society (APS) has recognized a summer intern at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) for producing an outstanding research poster at the world-wide APS Division of Plasma Physics (DPP) gathering last October.
Turbulence — the unruly swirling of fluid and air that mixes coffee and cream and can rattle airplanes in flight — causes heat loss that weakens efforts to reproduce on Earth the fusion that powers the sun and stars.
Researchers led by C.S. Chang of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have been awarded major supercomputer time to address key issues for ITER, the international experiment under construction in France to demonstrate the practicality of fusion energy.
Scientists often make progress by coming up with new ways to look at old problems. That has happened at the U.S.
Arms control robots, a new national facility, and accelerating the drive to bring the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars to Earth. These far-reaching achievements at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) made 2019 another remarkable year.
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory managed by Princeton University.
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