European Doctoral College in Fusion Science starting

IPP is one of the partners of the International Doctoral College in Fusion Science and Engineering

October 04, 2011
Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP) at Garching and Greifswald is one of eight partners of the new International Doctoral College in Fusion Science and Engineering (Fusion DC), which has now been approved under the auspices of Erasmus Mundus, the European programme to promote training schemes. The doctoral college is being supported with about five million euros and provides 40 doctoral scholarships for work in the field of fusion research.

The doctoral college puts special emphasis on international exchange of experience: During their three years of funded doctoral work, the top students selected will do research at different institutions and spend at least six months abroad in order to make optimum use of the complementary research focuses of the institutions involved. The world-wide fusion research network spun by the partners of the doctoral college comprises, besides IPP, seven other EU partners: the universities at Ghent, Lisbon, Madrid, Nancy, Padua and Stuttgart as well as the French fusion centre at Cadarache. As associated partners there are a further eleven EU and nine non-EU research institutions from the ITER member states: China, Japan, Russia and USA. This network offers doctoral students an almost unsurpassable variety of topical subjects in fusion research – during their training the young scientists will tackle the essential physical and technological challenges being faced on the way to a fusion power plant. Energy is to be derived from fusion of atomic nuclei, on the same pattern as the sun.

From mid-October physics and engineering students from all over the world can apply for scholarships: “They will then be profiting not only from the financial support, but also from the wide range of topics and experience afforded by the network”, states Professor Dr. Jean-Marie Noterdaeme, who is responsible at IPP for the doctoral college: “For their special research objectives students can, for example, select the most suitable experimental facility and supplement this with theory know-how available elsewhere. Furthermore, they will have the opportunity to become familiar with different science cultures.“ This will be good training for the work on the modern fusion devices, particularly the ITER international test reactor, now being built as a world-wide cooperation: The construction and operation of ITER will bring together at Cadarache engineers and scientists delegated from their home laboratories all over the world.

Isabella Milch

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