Diego Del-Castillo-Negrete

Diego del Castillo Negrete is the new Director of the Institute for Fusion Studies and Research Professor at the Department of Physics of the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining UT, he was a Distinguished Scientist in the Theory and Modeling Group of the Fusion Energy Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2000-2025). Previous appointments include research positions at the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory (1998-2000), and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of Californian San Diego (1994-1998). He has been visiting professor at universities in Marseille, Madrid, Mexico City, and Sao Paulo, has been a recurring visiting staff member at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and J.T. Oden Faculty Fellow and Visiting Researcher at the Oden Institute for Computational Sciences at the University of Texas. Dr. Del Castillo Negrete holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Texas at Austin and has been an innovative force in the study of fundamental plasma and fluid dynamics. He pioneered the investigation of non-diffusive transport in plasmas and has made key contributions to the understanding, prediction, and control of runaway electrons, magnetic disruptions, and energetic particles in magnetically confined fusion devices. More recently, he has pioneered the use of generative artificial intelligence methods to model turbulence and transport in controlled nuclear fusion plasmas.