APPLAuSE

André Torres
André obtained his MSc Degree in Engineering Physics at IST in 2017. A science and technology enthusiast since an early age, his curiosity for how things work led him to physics and he found in nuclear fusion a scientific field where physics and cutting-edge engineering meet. This led him to the Munich for an Erasmus exchange at TUM and to Barcelona for a traineeship at Fusion For Energy, where he conducted his master thesis work on magnetic diagnostic electronics and real-time data distribution.

Duarte Gonçalves 
Duarte was born in Madeira island and moved to Lisbon to study Engineering Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico. He received his MSc degree in 2017, by implementing an ionisation module for the LisbOn KInetics (LoKI) code, developed at IPFN. Afterwards, he continued his work in low-temperature plasmas by including a module coupling ionisations and electron-electron collisions, and by validating a helium kinetic scheme for LoKI. He entered the APPLAuSE program in 2018 and joined the N-PRiME group where he will perform an aerodynamic study of cold atmospheric pressure plasma jets.

Ricardo Ferreira
Ricardo was born in the historic town of Batalha, Portugal. He obtained his MSc degree in Engineering Physics at IST. In his thesis project, he studied laser ignition of hydrogen combustible mixtures, first at the ESTHER prototype combustion chamber and later in collaboration with CCRC at KAUST, Saudi Arabia. His interest in plasma physics lead him into pursuing a research career starting with a PhD at APPLAuSE, where he is part of the ESTHER team. During his free time, Ricardo enjoys Japanese anime and manga. As a car and motorsport enthusiast, he likes to learn more about the engineering behind racing cars. He hopes one day to be part of a Formula One team.

Rui Calado
Rui is from Lisbon, Portugal. He obtained both his Bachelor and Masters degree in Engineering Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon. The topic of his Masters Thesis consisted in developing a computational toolkit for plasma physics education. Later he applied to the APPLAuSE PhD Program, in which he is currently enrolled. His research will focus on modelling the losses of energetic ions due to Alfvén modes excited by ion cyclotron resonance heating in tokamak devices.

Rui Torres
Rui was born in 1994 in Lisbon, Portugal. He started as an intern at the theory and simulation team of GoLP/IPFN to investigate the role of 6-photon scattering processes in the polarisation of vacuum. He obtained his MSc degree in Engineering Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico. The topic of his MSc thesis was the realistic modelling of vacuum-polarisation-induced light-scattering scenarios in extreme intense fields, under the supervision of Prof. Luís O. Silva and Dr. Thomas Grismayer. Thereupon, he was awarded a grant to further study the effects of an imperfect vacuum or imperfect electromagnetic pulses in the characterisation of the QED signatures induced. Currently, his PhD work intends to explore magnetosphere dynamics of rotating compact objects with general relativistic considerations.