Colloquium Announcement

The pursuit of Fusion on earth has been until recently led largely by government-funded universities and labs; now, private capital is also entering the picture as the goal of Commercially Viable Fusion (CVF) is increasingly important for an energy-starved and growing world population. As private interests enter the picture, the tendency is to think that the "problem" has been reduced to a technical one requiring only engineering solutions.  While engineering is highly challenging, CVF will continue to remain a  fundamental scientific pursuit.  While the goals can be societal and commercial, the pathway to getting there must be led by physics. We will explore the current vast fusion landscape and make a case why new physics will be crucial to make fusion energy affordable. 

Dr. Swadesh Mahajan is an internationally renowned scientist who has made seminal contributions in many areas of theoretical plasma physics ranging from basic plasma processes to fusion applications to astrophysical phenomena. His early work on the universal drift instability was path breaking and brought about a fundamental change in the paradigm for modeling anomalous transport in tokamak plasmas. Likewise, his sustained and elegant research work on Alfven waves, unraveling and discovering many new aspects of their dynamics, has contributed richly towards our understanding of their manifestations in various laboratory and astrophysical situations and has also stimulated a great many experimental investigations. His recent work on “fusion-fission” hybrid systems based on a novel divertor system that he and his collaborators have invented, offers much hope for the construction of a compact energy system in the future. Dr. Mahajan is also an excellent teacher and a promoter of plasma science activities worldwide through his contributions at ICTP, Trieste. He played a pioneering role in the founding of the national fusion program in India and in the establishment of the Institute for Plasma Research. He is a Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at the Shiv Nadar University.