Principle Investigator – Professor Stephanie Diem
Diem is a Professor in the Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics Department, a member of the New Voices of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and was a featured speaker at the White House Summit on Developing a Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion event in March 2022. Education: BS Nuclear Engineering, Physics – UW Madison, MA, PhD Astrophysical Sciences, Program in Plasma Physics, Princeton University. Research interests: microwave heating and current drive in magnetically confined plasmas, electron Bernstein wave emission, heating and current drive, understanding and controlling edge instabilities in plasmas, integrated modeling of plasmas. Previous experience: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, on long term assignment at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. (See full bio here.)
Michael Bongard
Education: BA Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science – St. Olaf College; MS, PhD Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics, University of Wisconsin-Madison Research Interests: Plasma and Fusion Science and Technology; Tokamaks / Spherical Tokamaks; Plasma Heating and Current Drive Techniques; Magnetohydrodynamic Equilibrium and Stability; Real-time and Plasma Control Systems; Power Electronics; High-Temperature Plasma Diagnostics. (See full bio here.)
Michael Borchardt
John Goetz
Education: BA Physics, Mathematics – Carroll College; PhD Physics – University of Wisconsin – Madison. Worked on Tokapole-II, Alcator C-Mod, MST, and Pegasus. Research interests: magnetic confinement fusion
Benjamin Kujak-Ford
Benjamin Lewicki
Mark Nornberg
Mark is an Associate Scientist responsible for design and implementation of optical diagnostics on Pegasus. His research has centered on the interaction between turbulent flows and magnetic fields including the generation of magnetic fields through dynamos, the destabilization of shear flow by magnetic instability and its role in accretion around black holes, and the self-organization of magnetically-confined plasmas. In the context of non-inductive startup techniques for magnetic fusion, he is quite interested in the role of MHD and micro-instabilities in the formation of tokamak plasmas.
Joshua Reusch
Aaron Sontag
Education: BS Engineering Physics, BS Chemical Engineering – University of Kansas, MS, PhD Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics – UW Madison. Research interests: MHD equilibrium and stability, RWM physics and global plasma stability, ELM physics and pedestal stability, integrated modeling of pedestal and edge plasmas, fusion systems code anyalsis. Previous work experience: Scientist at Columbia University on site assignment at NSTX, Scientist and Group Leader at Oak Ridge National Laboratory with long-term assignment to the DIII-D National Fusion Facility
Gregory Winz
Greg started in the Engineering Physics Department in 1985, working as a student hourly for Professor Hershkowitz during the Phaedrus B Tandem Mirror Experiment upgrade. He received his first appointment in 1987 as a researcher. The next project he worked on was the Phaedrus T Tokamak. In 1998, he was hired by Professor Fonck to work on the Pegasus Toroidal Experiment, where he still is today. He has also worked on Professor Fonck’s Advanced Plasma Diagnostics grant. He is currently working on the PIII Experiment (see lab link for more information). He has some physics education and a two-year technical diploma (1986) from MATC in the Machine Tool program. That background along with a lifelong interest in how to make things gave him the skills to design and build scientific instruments and experiments. He came to the department with some training in ultra-high vacuum operation and maintenance, which has been another area of expertise in his career. He has learned a lot of plasma physics and optics throughout his three-plus decades in the department.
Emeritus
Professor Emeritus Raymond Fonck
Professor Fonck is an experimental physicist with research interests in plasma and fusion science, atomic processes in high-temperature plasmas, and diagnostic instrumentation. His main research focus is on the properties of magnetically confined plasmas for thermonuclear fusion energy applications. (See full bio here.)