Patrick Adrian receives prestigious Fellowship in High-Energy-Density Sciences
Graduate student Patrick Adrian has been awarded the Director’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in High-Energy-Density Sciences (HEDS) from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico to further his study of high-energy-density physics.
Adrian, a Nuclear Science and Engineering student at MIT working in the High-Energy-Density-Physics Division (HEDP) at MITMIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), is scheduled to defend his PhD thesis, “Studying particle and energy transport using nuclear and x-ray diagnostics for discovery science and Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF)” in October of this year.
“The results from Adrian’s work studying particle and energy transport in ICF plasmas will have important implications for the ignition experiments at the National Ignition Facility,” says HEDP Division Head Johan Frenje.
Adrian was selected for the Director’s Fellowship at LANL based on his academic performance and research accomplishments, as well as the strength of his proposed research, which he colloquially explained as creating “little stars in the lab.” Just as real stars consist of fusion-powered burning plasma, Adrian’s “stars” produce plasma and charged particles, the movements and longevity of which can be measured using “stopping-power” experiments to better understand how plasmas degenerate in fusion reactions. He will use LANL's xRAGE code to design a stopping-power experiment that can produce degenerate plasmas, and validate his experimental modeling at OMEGA Laser Facility.
Also from MIT’s PSFC, Postdoctoral Associate Graeme Sutcliffe was selected for the HEDS Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California.
July 2023. Original announcment at MIT PSFC
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