Welcome to the Plasma Control Laboratory within the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics at Lehigh University. The research work within the laboratory led by Prof. Eugenio Schuster lies at the intersection of nuclear fusion, plasma physics, control mathematics, machine learning, optimization, and computational methods. Nuclear fusion, which powers the Sun and enables life on Earth, arises as an economically affordable, environmentally sustainable, and politically acceptable source of energy. The research activity focuses on understanding, modeling, stabilizing, and controlling the plasma (an ionized hydrogenic gas at around 100 million degrees) sustaining the fusion reactions in magnetically confined devices such as tokamaks. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, members of the laboratory conduct collaborative work at different nuclear-fusion facilities and laboratories in the U.S. (DIII-D (San Diego, CA), NSTX-U (Princeton, NJ)) and around the world (KSTAR (South Korea), EAST (China), ITER (France)).
Member of the Plasma Control Laboratory attending the 11th ITER International School on "ITER Plasma Scenarios and Control" at University of California San Diego (July 2022). From left to right: Shira Morosohk, Hassan Al Khawaldeh, Dr. Xiao Song, Zibo Wang, Prof. Tariq Rafiq, Vincent Graber, Dr. Sai-Tej Paruchuri, Dr. Lixing Yang, Brian Leard, Dr. Cesar Clauser, Prof. Eugenio Schuster.
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