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Peter Catto receives honorary doctorate from Chalmers

Peter Catto

Peter Catto, Assistant Director at the Plasma Science and Fusion Center and leader of the Fusion Theory and Computation research group, received an honorary doctorate from Chalmers University of Technology in a ceremony held on May 12 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Recognizing Dr. Catto as "one of the world's most renowned researchers in fusion physics", Chalmers honored him for his important contributions to the kinetic theory of the ionized gases or plasmas that are being investigated to develop fusion energy.

Peter Catto's research deals primarily with plasma behavior and how well magnetic fields are able to contain a fusion plasma. His theoretical models have shown how this behavior can be described in a mathematically correct way, a prerequisite for understanding the fundamental phenomena that result in good plasma containment. These models and their variants are extensively used to simulate plasma turbulence in fusion science experiments worldwide.

Dr. Catto has collaborated with researchers at Chalmers for some twenty years, and has been a host and mentor for visiting doctoral students and postdocs from Chalmers.