Columbia University and the Max Planck Society are creating a new virtual space to advance research into fusion energy generation.
The Max Planck Columbia Center is a joint transatlantic centre with a budget of $13.3m over five years.
Work is scheduled to begin in 2027, with the centre researching “Optimizing Symmetry in Fusion Plasmas.”
The centre will be co-directed
Thomas Klinger, director at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, and Carlos Paz-Soldan, associate professor of applied physics and applied mathematics at Columbia Engineering and director of the Columbia Fusion Research Center, will co-direct the new centre.
This Center is one of seven that the Max Planck Society (MPG) will establish this year, and all will be virtual. Creating virtual centres is part of the society’s internationalisation strategy, enabling researchers and international partners to collaborate more easily and advance knowledge.
These virtual centres will all be established for five years, with the option of a one-time extension.
This project places a key focus on early-career researchers, with a programme overseeing their exchange for work on joint projects. Participants could spend a year at a partner institution in Greifswald, Garching, or New York City.
The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is also offering use of two experimental facilities: The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator in Greifswalf, and the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak in Garching. Researchers at Columbia University will automatically receive team-member status at both of these facilities and may participate in experiments.
A new position for an assistant professor will also be opened at Columbia University over a fixed term of two years, to be filled twice over the Center’s five years.
Six major work packages will be divided by the Center
The six major work packages are:
- Stellarator Power Exhaust: This work addresses the still partly unresolved challenge of power and particle exhaust in optimized stellarators. Novel transport and turbulence codes will be developed, improved, benchmarked, and validated against experimental data. The goal is to establish quantitative predictive capabilities.
- Hybrid Tokamak-Stellarators: This work package aims to develop a hybrid concept combining features of stellarators and tokamaks. Researchers will seek a compact and stable magnetic configuration with excellent plasma confinement properties.
- Simulation of Transients: Researchers will investigate plasma transients in tokamaks and stellarators using computer simulations. Such major events break the symmetry of the plasma and lead to an abrupt loss of thermal energy and, ultimately, the generation of fast particles. Both effects can endanger plasma-facing components.
- Non-Planar Superconducting Magnets: This work package focuses on the engineering development of high- and low-temperature superconducting magnets. Researchers aim to improve the understanding of quench behavior—the physical phenomena that occur during the transition from the superconducting to the normal-conducting state—and to investigate the stresses and strains that arise in non-planar magnets.
- Energetic Particles in Stellarators: The aim is to improve the understanding of interactions between energetic particles and Alfvénic modes. Researchers will also consider novel aspects of their coupling to plasma microturbulence. Alfvénic modes are characteristic oscillations in a magnetized plasma in which the plasma and magnetic field move in a coupled manner.
- Edge Stability of Tokamaks: Researchers will conduct coordinated experiments and perform multi-machine modeling of large edge instabilities in tokamaks. Particular emphasis will be placed on quasi-continuous exhaust and plasmas with negative triangularity.
Thomas Klinger said: “The Max Planck Columbia Center will bring together two leading institutions in plasma physics and fusion research. We aim to combine the strengths of tokamaks and stellarators to address key scientific and technological questions on the path toward a fusion power plant. It is particularly important to me that early-career researchers gain international experience at a world-class university and build lasting scientific networks from an early stage in their careers.”
Carlos Paz-Soldan said: “I’m delighted to see the partnership between Columbia Engineering and the Max Planck Society grow and deepen. The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics is a pre-eminent group in the field and operates world-leading fusion facilities. In partnership, we will be able to provide unique opportunities both to develop the fusion workforce and to advance key open scientific questions on the path to fusion energy.”
Funding for the Center will be provided by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Simons Foundation International administered by the Simons Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (DOE-FES), and Columbian University.
