STEM

PPPL senior physicist Wei-li Lee honored at week-long symposium

Physicists from around the world gathered at the University of California, Irvine this past summer for a symposium in honor of Wei-li Lee, a senior physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). The week-long event, held from July 18-22, focused on gyrokinetic simulation — a technique Lee invented in the 1980s to model the behavior of particles within plasma, the ultrahot gas composed of electrons and atomic nuclei that fuels fusion reactions.

PPPL physicist receives ExxonMobil grant for plasma research

Physicist Egemen Kolemen, who holds positions at Princeton University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), is sharing a grant from ExxonMobil to research whether plasma could reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with oil wells. Plasma is partially ionized gas that has separated into electrons and atomic nuclei, and can be found on Earth as lightning, neon lights, and many other forms. Stars and 99 percent of the visible universe are made of plasma.

PPPL physicist receives ExxonMobil grant for plasma research

Physicist Egemen Kolemen, who holds positions at Princeton University and the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), is sharing a grant from ExxonMobil to research whether plasma could reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with oil wells. Plasma is partially ionized gas that has separated into electrons and atomic nuclei, and can be found on Earth as lightning, neon lights, and many other forms. Stars and 99 percent of the visible universe are made of plasma.

Intern helped get robotic arm on PPPL’s PTOLEMY experiment up and running

Deep in a laboratory tucked away in the basement of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), intern Mark Thom punched commands into a computer as two other students checked a chamber where a silver robotic arm extended from a small port.

The arm will allow scientists studying neutrinos that originated at the beginning of the universe to load a tiny amount of nuclear material into the device while still maintaining a vacuum in the PTOLEMY laboratory.

Intern helped get robotic arm on PPPL’s PTOLEMY experiment up and running

Deep in a laboratory tucked away in the basement of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), intern Mark Thom punched commands into a computer as two other students checked a chamber where a silver robotic arm extended from a small port.

The arm will allow scientists studying neutrinos that originated at the beginning of the universe to load a tiny amount of nuclear material into the device while still maintaining a vacuum in the PTOLEMY laboratory.

PPPL intern creates software for snapshot of plasma in NSTX-U

When most of today’s college interns were still in kindergarten, Max Wallace was working for more than a decade as a programmer for various companies, founding a hackerspace in Charlotte, North Carolina, and writing code for start-ups in Silicon Valley.

Students do cool summer research projects in one of the hottest spots

More than 40 college students pursuing careers in physics, engineering and computer science are spending their summer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory working with scientists and engineers on hands-on research projects. Here they talk about the cool science they did at the Lab, which is devoted to fusion energy and plasma science research.

Fun and inspiration for 575 young women at PPPL’s Young Women’s Conference

Some 575 seventh- to tenth-grade girls from throughout New Jersey, as well as Pennsylvania and Maryland, found fun and inspiration doing myriad hands-on activities and meeting female scientists at The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s 15^th annual Young Women’s Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) on March 18. They talked to investigators from the FBI, watched colorful infrared images of themselves, played with robots, learned about electronics and plasma physics, saw cool chemistry, and heard about careers in STEM.

Fun and inspiration for 575 young women at PPPL’s Young Women’s Conference

Some 575 seventh- to tenth-grade girls from throughout New Jersey, as well as Pennsylvania and Maryland, found fun and inspiration doing myriad hands-on activities and meeting female scientists at The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s 15^th annual Young Women’s Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) on March 18. They talked to investigators from the FBI, watched colorful infrared images of themselves, played with robots, learned about electronics and plasma physics, saw cool chemistry, and heard about careers in STEM.

DOE’s Ed Synakowski traces key discoveries in the quest for fusion energy

The path to creating sustainable fusion energy as a clean, abundant and affordable source of electric energy has been filled with “aha moments” that have led to a point in history when the international fusion experiment, ITER, is poised to produce more fusion energy than it uses when it is completed in 15 to 20 years, said Ed Synakowski, associate director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).