Organisation
Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear is a research unit of Instituto Superior Técnico with expertise on Plasma Physics, Engineering and Technologies, Controlled Nuclear Fusion, Lasers and Photonics and Advanced Computing.
IPFN has two thematic lines:
Controlled Nuclear Fusion
This research line is focused on the work programme established by the Euratom Fusion roadmap H2020, which includes activities associated with the development of systems, operation, and scientific exploitation of large and medium-sized tokamaks and stellarator, as well as with the design and construction of the next generation fusion devices.
Plasma Technologies and Intense Lasers
This research line takes advantage of the critical mass of the groups within it to address frontier questions in gas electronics, sources of particles and radiating species, ultra-short, ultra-intense lasers and their applications, plasma accelerators and advanced radiation sources, ultra cold plasmas, and fundamental science in space.
Management Board
The IPFN Management Board is composed by the Heads of the Research Groups and representatives of PhD members, and carries out the global management of the research unit.
Bruno Gonçalves
Director | Group of Engineering and Systems Integration
Marta Dias
Group of Material Characterization
Luís Lemos Alves
Group of N-PRiME
Marta Fajardo
PhD representative
Horácio Fernandes
Group of Experimental Physics
Pedro Almeida
Group of High Pressure Plasmas
Gonçalo Figueira
PhD representative
Vasco Guerra
PhD representative
Carlos Silva
PhD representative
Luís Oliveira e Silva
Group of Lasers and Plasmas
Alberto Vale
PhD representative
External Advisory Panel
The External Advisory Panel (EAP) monitors the activities and strategy of IPFN. This body oversees the scientific progress, graduate programmes, recruitment and overall performance, advising the Board of IPFN on all matters related to the mission of the unit.
Prof. Alexander Schekochihin
University of Oxford
Alex Schekochihin studied at MIPT and Princeton (PhD 2001). After postdoctoral stints at UCLA, Imperial College, and Cambridge, he joined Imperial’s faculty in 2006, moving to Oxford in 2008, where he is now Professor of Theoretical Physics and Head of Theoretical Astrophysics and Plasma Physics Group. He has won the IoP C. Payne-Gaposchkin Medal and the APS J. Dawson Award for his contributions to plasma physics (2019), and is a Fellow of both societies; in 2022, he was appointed Simons Investigator in Astrophysics. Since 2013, he has been (co-)Editor of the Journal of Plasma Physics. His research interests are in the physics of turbulent plasmas, both in laboratory and in space, ranging from transport in tokamaks to magnetised dynamics, and thermodynamics, of galaxy clusters.
Prof. Gerrit Kroesen
Eindhoven University of Technology
Gerrit Kroesen has been active in plasma physics at TU/e since his MSc degree in 1983. After his PhD in that area in 1988, he was a visiting fellow of the IBM Research Laboratories in Yorktown Heights for a year, and also worked for several shorter periods at Ecole Polytechnique Palaiseau and at Kyoto University. Since 2000, he is a full professor. During his entire career he has been active in plasma technology for semicon technologies, environmental technologies, lighting, lightning, energy transition, and dusty plasmas. For 10 years, 2012-2022, he was dean of the Applied Physics department of TU/e
Prof. Francesco Romanelli
University of Rome
Francesco Romanelli graduated in Physics and started his career as researcher at the ENEA Research Centre in Frascati. He started his scientific collaboration with JET in 1994. In 1996 he was appointed Deputy Director of the Fusion Department in Frascati. Since then he has been a member of several European Fusion Committees. From 2003 to 2006 he was Chairman of the EFDA-STAC. In this role Francesco Romanelli was involved in the negotiations for ITER and the Broader Approach. Since 2007 he has been the European standing expert in the ITER-STAC.
Prof. Katalin Varjú
ELI ALPS
Katalin Varjú is the Science Director of the ELI ALPS laser research institute, responsible for the implementation and operation of the user facility. She also holds an associate professorship at the Univesity of Szeged, Hungary. Her main research interests are in optical and atomic physics: concerning the propagation of femtosecond laser pulses, nonlinear interactions of light with matter, high-order harmonic generation and attosecond pulse (train) production, and its applications to study electron dynamics.
Peter Bruggeman
CNRS & Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier
Peter is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and the Ernst Eckert Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He currently also serves as the Director of Graduate Studies of Mechanical Engineering and the Director of the High Temperature and Plasma Laboratory. His research focuses on low temperature plasma science and engineering with applications in health and sustainability. He co-edited the 2017 and 2022 Plasma Roadmap and is founding co-organizer of the US Low Temperature Plasma Summer School.
