Principal Investigator
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Nuno F. Loureiro Nuno F. Loureiro is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, with a joint appointment in the Physics Department. He obtained his MEng. in Physics at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon (Portugal) in 2000 and his Ph.D. in Physics at Imperial College in London (UK) in 2005. He was awarded the Thomas H. Stix Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Plasma Physics Research (American Physical Society) in 2015 [link], the 2017 and 2020 ANS Faculty PAI Outstanding Professor, and the NSF CAREER award in 2017. He has an active interest in several fundamental aspects of magnetized plasma dynamics, such as magnetic reconnection, magnetic field generation and amplification, confinement and transport in fusion plasmas, and turbulence in strongly magnetized, weakly collisional plasmas. More detail on his research can be found on his webpage here. A selection of publications can be found here. |
| nflour@mit.edu |   |
Postdoctoral Associates and Graduate Students
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Dr. Noah Mandell Noah Mandell received his Bachelors degree in Physics from University of Maryland - College Park (2014) and his PhD in Astrophysical Sciences (Plasma Physics) from Princeton University (2021). He joined the Loureiro group in 2021 as a DOE Fusion Energy Sciences postdoctoral fellow. His research interests primarily focus on modeling turbulent transport in fusion devices. His PhD dissertation, advised by Greg Hammett, focused on electromagnetic gyrokinetic modeling of the tokamak scrape-off layer. As an undergraduate, he worked with Bill Dorland on gyrofluid and gyrokinetic modeling of turbulence in the core of tokamaks. Noah is one of the primary developers of the gyrokinetic codes Gkeyll and GX. |
| nrm@mit.edu |
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Dr. Erika Ye Erika received her Bachelors and M.Eng degree from MIT (2015) and her PhD from Caltech (2021). Her previous education and research covers a broad spectrum of topics, but for her graduate degree she focused on computational methods for quantum and condensed matter systems. Currently, she is investigating the application of tensor networks and quantum algorithms to problems in plasma dynamics. |
| erikaye@mit.edu |
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Lucio Milanese Lucio Milanese obtained his MSci degree in Physics from Imperial College London. He completed his undergraduate thesis project “Development of a fully spectral Global Brakinskii Solver” at the Swiss Plasma Center under the supervisor of Prof. Paolo Ricci and Dr. Fabio Riva. His research focus now is on plasma turbulence relevant to fusion and astrophysics research. |
| milanese@mit.edu |
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Muni Zhou Muni Zhou is from Shenzhen, China. She graduated from Zhejiang University with a bachelor degree in physics in 2016. As an undergrad, she became interested in statistical physics and nonlinear dynamics and chose plasma physics as her approach to study these problems. Under the supervision of Prof. Liu Chen she was trained to solve simplified equations for eigenmode structure analytically. She was a visiting student in PPPL in her senior year, and under the supervision of Prof. Roscoe White, she did her undergrad thesis about the collisional dependence of Alfven mode saturation in tokamaks. She is currently a PhD student in Prof. Nuno Loureiro’s group in MIT, studying the dynamics of magnetic fields in the universe. |
| munizhou@mit.edu |
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Zhuo Liu Zhuo Liu received a bachelor's degree in physics and a minor in computer science from Peking University, China, in 2019. During his undergraduate, he worked on the numerical simulation of low frequency Alfven modes in DIII-D tokamak and the development of Gyro-Toroidal Code under the supervision of Prof. Zhihong Lin. He is now a graduate student in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department working at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center in Loureiro group. His research currently involves fundamental plasma physics with a focus on turbulence and magnetic reconnection. |
| zhuol@mit.edu |
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Abtin Ameri Abtin Ameri graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, with a Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Physics in 2020. Interested in plasma physics, quantum mechanics, and computer science, Abtin's project is exploring the intersection of plasma physics, quantum computation, and quantum information science. More specifically, his research focuses on solving the governing equations of plasma physics on quantum computers more efficiently compared to classical computers. The project has the potential to accelerate the progress in understanding plasma physics and fusion energy through faster numerical simulations.
In his free time, Abtin enjoys hiking, running, photography, chess, and guitar. You can find more information on his website.
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aameri@mit.edu |
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Alex Velberg Originally from Brooklyn, NY, Alex Velberg graduated from the University of Rochester in 2021 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a BA in physics. During his time in Rochester, he worked with Prof. Adam Sefkow at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics to develop a variety of algorithms for the TriForce hybrid fluid-kinetic multiphysics code. Now a PhD student in the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department at MIT and a member of Prof. Loureiro’s group, Alex is working on a project that seeks to utilize machine learning techniques to discover interpretable, reduced models of magnetic reconnection from first-principles simulation data.
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| velberg@mit.edu |
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Miguel Calvo Carrera Miguel Calvo Carrera graduated in 2018 from a BSc in Energy Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, with a major in Energy Technologies. In his senior year, he did experimental research in the pellet injector of the Stellarator TJ-II. After this, he pursued a BSc in Physics in Physics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, which he completed in 2021. There, he worked in experimental Materials Science and Condensed Matter Theory. He is currently a 1st year PhD student in the MIT Physics department, and will start to work in understanding turbulence in the periphery of Tokamaks.
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| miguelcc@mit.edu |
Undergraduate Students
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Kai Van Brunt Kai Van Brunt is a first-year undergraduate at MIT studying physics. He joined the group to learn more about plasma physics and hopes to work on fusion energy research in the future. Supervised by Prof Loureiro and Abtin Ameri, he is simulating the 3D dynamics of single charge plasmas. In his free time he enjoys reading, hiking, and reptile care. |
| kav@mit.edu |
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Lucas Shoji Lucas Shoji is a first-year undergraduate at MIT studying physics. He joined the group to learn more about plasma physics and physics research in general. Under the supervision of Prof. Loureiro and Alex Velberg, Lucas is working on MHD simulations of magnetized flux tubes to understand more about instabilities, magnetic reconnection and turbulence in them. In his free time he enjoys making and listening to music. |
| lshoji@mit.edu |
Interns
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Christopher van Hoeke Having graduated from Boston University with a degree in Physics, I’ve since spent most of my time working in Boston focusing on big data analysis statistical modeling and machine learning. My passion for physics and fusion having grown since my undergraduate days, I now intern in the Loureiro Group. There I work on applying machine learning to help answer plasma related questions. |
Former Members
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Andrew Jenkins Andrew Jenkins is a first-year undergrad at MIT studying physics, mathematics, and computer science. He joined the Loureiro group to gain experience using computational methods in order to answer theoretical questions and has developed a passion for plasma physics along the way. Under the supervision of Professor Loureiro and Abtin Ameri, he is developing algorithms to simulate the dynamics of single species plasmas in an attempt to gain insight into their equilibrium states at different temperatures. Along with competing on MIT’s Football team, Andrew’s interests include the outdoors, rocketry, reading, community involvement, philosophy, and self-development. You can read more about Andrew on his website. |
| awj@mit.edu |
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Herman Øie Kolden Herman Øie Kolden is a Norwegian exchange student from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. As part of his MSci in Physics and Mathematics, he is spending a year as a Fulbright scholar at MIT. He is studying both quantum information theory and plasma physics, so for Professor Loureiro’s group he is currently exploring how the rapidly developing technology of quantum computers can be used to solve nonlinear partial differential equations important to plasma science. |
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Elizabeth (Libby) Tolman Libby Tolman is a former PhD student and NSF fellow in the Physics Department. She began her time at MIT working for the Alcator C-Mod experiment, with a focus on Thomson scattering and pedestal physics, before joining Professor Loureiro’s group when he arrived at MIT. Libby received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, where she majored in Physics and received a certificate in Latin American Studies. In her free time, she enjoys soccer, science outreach, and serving as an RA in her graduate dorm. More information can be found on her webpage here.
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| etolman@mit.edu |
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Pallavi Bhat Pallavi Bhat completed her PhD in 2015 from IUCAA, Pune, India under the guidance of Prof. Kandaswamy Subramanian. The PhD thesis was focused on the application of turbulent dynamo theory (fluctuation or small-scale dynamos in particular) to astrophysical systems to understand the origin and evolution of magnetic fields. She followed with a one year postdoc working on the origin of large-scale magnetic fields in MRI systems, with Fatima Ebrahimi and Eric Blackman in PPPL, Princeton University. She worked on plasmoid instability in kinetic collisional regimes with Nuno Loureiro as a postdoc associate.
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| pbhat@mit.edu |
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Maximilian Daschner Max came to MIT as an undergraduate exchange student from ETH Zurich in fall 2018 and joined the Loureiro group as a UROP in February 2019 when he became involved in plasma physics for the first time. Together with Lucio Milanese, he worked on simulations of Alfvénic-type turbulence in strongly magnetized, low-beta pair plasmas. After graduating from ETH, he is back in Zurich and currently pursuing a master’s degree in physics.
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| daschner@mit.edu |
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Ryan White I grew up in Reno, Nevada where I learned to love fitness, hiking, camping, golf, and generally being outdoors. I got my undergraduate degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, which is where I first got involved with plasma physics research. I got my PhD in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin working with Professor Richard Fitzpatrick, and I have been working as a postdoc at MIT since 2015.
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| rlw@mit.edu |
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Giannanadrea Inchingolo Giannandrea Inchingolo was born in Italy in 1990. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Pisa, where he concluded his Masters in Plasma Physics in 2014 under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Macchi. His master thesis was focused on kinetic correction of the heat transport in Inertial Confinement Fusion and was a collaboration with the University “La Sapienza” of Rome, under the supervision of Prof. Stefano Atzeni. In 2015 he moved to Lisbon, when he started his PhD in the Advanced Program of Plasma Science and Engineering (APPLAuSE), joining the Group of Lasers and Plasmas (GoLP) under the supervision of Prof. Luis O. Silva and Dr. Thomas Grismayer. His research is focused on Magneto-genesis: the origin and amplification of magnetic fields in astrophysical scenarios. His research project is in collaboration with Prof. Nuno Loureiro at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently at MIT for the academic year 2017/2018 to conclude his PhD research.
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| gianinch@mit.edu |