PhD Thesis at the Joint European Torus (JET)

My PhD research addressed one of fusion energy’s biggest challenges: keeping the plasma—the ultra-hot core of a reactor—stable and clean. Even tiny impurities can disrupt the reaction. By analyzing the light emitted from the plasma and developing a novel atomic trap to slow ion beams 200-fold, I measured the key processes behind these instabilities with unprecedented precision.

This work primarily executed at the Nuclear Physics Accelerator Institute (KVI) at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and conducted as part of the Joint European Torus (JET), resulted in 18+ publications and the intuitive “over-the-barrier model”. The findings contributed to the design of ITER, the world’s flagship fusion experiment, bringing us closer to a future of clean, limitless energy.