Professor Allain was invited to Los Alamos National Laboratory, Materials Science & Technology Division where he presented the seminar titled “Challenges to a foundational understanding of the plasma-material interface in plasma-burning nuclear fusion reactors”.
Congratulations to Michael Toriyama for being selected by the Harvard College Undergraduate Research Association (HCURA) to present RSSEL’s work on Multi-Scale Computational Irradiation Surface Science at the 2017 National Collegiate Research Conference (NCRC) at Harvard University.
Hanna Schamis will be the first RSSEL graduate student to conduct research at ITER during her five month internship opportunity at the world’s largest fusion experiment in Spring 2017. Under the supervision of Gregory de Temmerman, Coordinating Scientist Plasma Edge & PWI Science and Operations Department (SCOD)/Science Division (SD)/Tungsten Divertor & Plasma-Wall Interactions Section (TDPW), Hanna will be working on the modeling of erosion /deposition on ITER first mirrors during glow discharge cleaning. The internship at ITER facilities in Saint Paul Lez Durance, France is an exciting opportunity that will strengthen collaboration in PMI research with Illinois, NPRE and Professor Allain’s RSSEL research group.
The ITER project is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject, which will be the world’s largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment. It is an experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor that is being built in Cadarache, southern France.
Congratulations to Brandon Holybee, who has been selected to receive the prestigious Lam Research Corporation Scholarship. Lam Research Corporation is an American corporation that engages in the design, manufacture, marketing, and service of semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits.
Felipe Bedoya was a visiting graduate student at PPPL during the last NSTX-U run period, during which he took thesis data with the Materials Analysis and Particle Probe (MAPP) developed at RSSEL. Bedoya used the new diagnostic, MAPP, to insert graphite and molybdenum alloy (TZM) samples into the NSTX-U vacuum vessel for exposure during boronization and subsequent plasma operations. The device enables scientists to decipher the chemical make-up of the surface of materials exposed to plasma, while keeping the materials in a vacuum. The research was published in the July issue of Review of Scientific Instruments, and was funded by the DOE Office of Science (Fusion Energy Sciences). For the complete article read: PPPL researchers successfully test new device that analyzes the surfaces of tokamak components within a vacuum
Hanna Schamis spent two summers as an intern in the Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) at PPPL. Schamis’ research this summer focused on an alloy of molybdenum (TZM), a plasma-facing material that will be used to line the divertor, a part of the machine that collects heat and particles from the plasma. Schamis used MAPP to conduct her experiment and analyze the effect of the plasma on the chemical composition of the TZM over time.
This is the first time measurements of this kind have been performed on a large fusion device like NSTX-U given the importance of surface chemistry and physics and is part of Prof Allain’s broad portfolio in fusion PMI research.
Prof. JP Allain laboratory, Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering
Prof. Allain has been chosen as an Engineering at Illinois’ Faculty Entrepreneurial Fellow for the 2016-17 year. He joins the second class of Faculty Entrepreneurial Fellows, a program first of its kind in a U.S. College of Engineering supported by a group of passionate alumni. Fellows focus on bringing their work to the world by developing a technology and testing its commercial potential while working with student teams.
Allain and his team will explore bioactive interfaces with atomic-scale additive plasma nanomanufacturing. Their goal is to disrupt the biosurface and biointerface technology space by introducing a plasma source that enables a synthesis approach that is clean, cheap, versatile and scalable.
Engineering and business students interested in joining a student team led by Prof. Allain this fall must register for the new innovation entrepreneurship course TE/ENG 401: Developing Breakthrough Projects.
NPSS Distinguished Lecturers are volunteers who are nominated by the NPSS Technical Committees based on distinguished stature and achievement within their technical communities.
With over 3500 abstracts submitted by the September 30, 2015 deadline, WBC2016 is on track to be the largest scientific gathering of biomaterials scientists ever, and the largest World Biomaterials Congress to-date.