Uri Shumlak

University of Wisconsin, Zapp Energy

Monday, June 22
8:15 – 9:15 AM

The sheared-flow-stabilized Z pinch enables unity-beta plasma confinement without external magnetic field coils. Experiments at the University of Washington and Zap Energy demonstrate stable, high-performance plasmas and thermonuclear fusion consistent with adiabatic compression. Simulations and integrated technology demonstrator support scaling toward a compact fusion reactor.

Uri Shumlak is Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Washington and Chief Scientist and co-founder of Zap Energy. He earned his B.S. from Texas A&M University and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, and was a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. He has held appointments at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He is an APS Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and AIAA Associate Fellow. His research focuses on plasma physics, innovative magnetic confinement for fusion energy, space propulsion, and theoretical and computational multi-species plasma modeling.

Justin Burton

Emory University

Wednesday, June 24
8:15 – 9:15 AM

The collective motion of particles in a dusty plasma is driven by nonreciprocal interaction forces and electromagnetic fields in the plasma. I will discuss efforts using AI to simultaneously learn these complex forces and fields directly from experiments, and what new physics insights they bring.

Justin Burton received his B.S. in Physics from the University of Cincinnati in 2001, followed by a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Irvine in 2006. After postdoctoral appointments at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Chicago, he joined Emory University’s Department of Physics in 2013, where he is currently a Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Physics. His honors include selection as a Gordon and Betty Moore Experimental Physics Investigator, election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and an NSF CAREER Award. Beyond research, he leads several K 12 STEM outreach and education initiatives throughout the Atlanta region.