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Plasma Diagnostics Course - Lausanne
Owen Jones, University of Durham
At the end of January, Bart Lomanowski and I made our way to Lausanne for a five-day course on plasma diagnostics. Along with postgraduate research students from other institutions across Europe, we were introduced to the principles and applications of diagnostic techniques in tokamaks and basic plasma physics devices. Lectures were supported by computational data analysis classes and practical problem solving.
Despite this being the first year in which the course has been run, we found the syllabus to be well-organised. The three lecturers had clearly coordinated their efforts to provide a course in which the content of each class built on material from earlier in the week. Although there was little overlap between the specific research interests of many of the participants and that of the group at Lausanne, we nonetheless gained an understanding of some quite general techniques which will serve us well for the future.
Overall, this course was certainly worth the time which we invested in it. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the practicalities of implementing diagnostics on plasma physics experiments, and particularly to those who seek a deeper understanding of how to extract meaningful information from the data. Lausanne itself is a pleasant city, and provided the setting for an enjoyable few days.
53rd APS Department of Plasma Physics Conference - Salt Lake City
Jack Snape, University of York
In November 2011 I attended the 53rd APS Department of Plasma Physics conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The conference covered a wide range of plasma physics topics and had a number of parallel sessions, which made it necessary to select specific areas of interest. I chose to focus on the Magnetic Confinement Fusion sessions, which included new results from the three biggest US tokamaks; DIII-D, NSTX and ALCATOR C-MOD. There was also a very interesting session on research in support of ITER.
I presented a poster on my work entitled "Structure on evolution of m/n=2/1 neoclassical tearing modes on MAST". The post session was great opportunity to meet experts on neoclassical tearing modes and spherical tokamaks and discuss my work with them. Simon Freethy, another York attendee, also presented a talk on "Synthetic aperture microwave imaging on MAST".
Salt Lake City is a very interesting place. I was able to spend some time learning about its unusual past and meeting some of its bizarre characters in the numerous pubs and bars, some of which had their own microbreweries. At times it was like being in an episode of 'Twin Peaks', in a good way.
15th International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials - Charleston
Llion Marc Evans, University of Manchester
I recently attended the 15th International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials. The conference website describes the series;
Since 1984, the series of International Conferences on Fusion Reactor Materials has become the major international forum for presentation and discussion of research on material performance in, and material development for, the challenging environment of DT fusion.
As a conference attendee, I had the opportunity in one of the poster sessions to present my recent work on using a finite element model created from an x-ray tomographic image to simulate thermal diffusivity. The conference was also a chance to attend relevant satellite meetings aiming at coordinating international collaboration, and to network with students and high-profile academics from institutions worldwide with interests in fusion technology research.
IAEA 8th Technical Meeting on Controls and Data Acquisition and Remote Participation for Fusion Research - San Fransisco, and ICALEPCS - Grenoble
Billy Huang, University of Durham
As part of my PhD and the Fusion Doctoral Training Network I recently had the opportunity to present my research at two conferences. In June this year I was in sunny San Francisco at the IAEA 8th Technical Meeting on Controls and Data Acquisition and Remote Participation for Fusion Research and gave a talk on "Standardisation on FPGA systems incorporating embedded Linux". It was a fantastic experience for my first conference and I really enjoyed the city.
Additionally in October this year I went to the ICALEPCS biannual conference in Grenoble and gave two talks "FPGA-based hardware instrumentation development on MAST" and "Embedded Linux on FPGA instruments for control interface and remote management". Grenoble is beautiful and set in the valley of three mountains, I'd recommend visiting!
Ivo Furno demonstrates one of the numerous Langmuir probes on TORPEX.
Calibrating a magnetic pick-up coil similar to those used on TCV.
The entrance hall to the Salt Palace Convention Centre, complete with wind-powered sound installation.
The conference banquet was held aboard the US aircraft carrier Yorktown.
Billy Huang giving a talk at the ICALEPCS conference in Grenoble.