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Saeid Houshmandyar

  • Senior Research Fellow
  • Physics
Profile image of Saeid Houshmandyar
houshmandyar@austin.utexas.edu
PMA
11.322

Biography

Dr. Houshmandyar is an experimental fusion scientist in the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the Institute for Fusion Studies (IFS) after holding research and lecturer positions at Prairie View A&M University, Lone Star College, and Gonzaga University. At IFS, he has been involved in studies of turbulent transport in the Alcator C-Mod, DIII-D, and EAST tokamaks. His research focuses on turbulence studies in high-performance operational scenarios in tokamaks, utilizing gyro-fluid and gyrokinetic simulations.

Dr. Houshmandyar is an expert in diagnostic R&D and control. In particular, he is a world expert in electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostics for tokamaks. He has been a key member of the ECE diagnostics team for ITER, responsible for evaluating the performance of the ITER-ECE diagnostics. Additionally, he has secured funding to design and commission the ECE diagnostics suite for the Compass Upgrade tokamak, currently under construction at IPP-Prague.

Research

  • Turbulence and Transport in Magnetically Confined Plasmas
    • Gyrokinetic simulations in tokamak operation scenarios without edge localized modes (ELM)
    • Micro turbulence studies in the pedestal of high performance plasmas in tokamaks
  • Electron cyclotron emission (ECE) diagnostics R&D

Research Areas

  • Energy

Fields of Interest

  • Plasma/Fusion Physics

Centers and Institutes

  • Institute for Fusion Studies

Education

  • Ph.D. in Physics, West Virginia University, 2010
  • B.Sc. in Physics, Sharif University of Technology, 2000

Publications

    1. C. T. Holcomb, et al, “DIII-D Research to Provide Solutions for ITER and Fusion Energy,” Nucl. Fusion 64 112003 (2024).

    2. V. Weinzettl et al., "Development of the Diagnostic Tools for the COMPASS-U Tokamak and Plans for the First Plasma,” Fusion. Eng. Des., 191, 113545 (2023).

    3. S. Houshmandyar et al., "Recent Progress on the Electron Cyclotron Emission Diagnostics Development for ITER,” 21st joint workshop on ECE and ECRH, ITER Organization, France (2022).

    4. S. Houshmandyar, T. A. Watts, W. L. Rowan, J. Zajac, V. Veselovky, O. Bogar and V. Weizettl, "Design of an Electron Cyclotron Emission Diagnostics Suite for the Compass Upgrade Tokamak,” Rev. Sci. Instrum., 93, 113514 (2022).

    5. Y. Liu et al., "Progress in ITER ECE Diagnostic Design and Integration,” JINS 17 C04019 (2022).

    6. S. Houshmandyar, K. H. Burrell, B. A. Grierson, J. McClenaghan, G. M. Staebler, C. Chrystal, L. Zeng, M. R. Halfmoon, D. R. Hatch, and M. E. Austin, "Explaining the Lack of Power Degradation in the Wide Pedestal Quiescent H-mode at DIII-D via Transport Modelling,” Nucl. Fusion 62 056024 (2022).

    7. M. Fenstermacher et al., "DIII-D Research Advancing the Physics Basis for Optimizing the Tokamak Approach to Fusion Energy,” Nucl. Fusion 62 042024 (2022).

    8. S. Houshmandyar R. Xie, M. E. Austin, W. L. Rowan and, H. Zhao, "Fast Modulating Electron Cyclotron Emission (FMECE) Diagnostic for Tokamaks,” Rev. Sci. Instrum., 92, 033510 (2021).

    9. R. Xie, S. Houshmandyar and, M. E. Austin, "Active Feedback Control of ECE Radiometer Channel Frequencies for Improved Electron Temperature Measurements,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 92, 033530 (2021).

    10. A. Wingen, R. S. Wilcox, M. R. Cianciosa, S. K. Seal, L. F. Delgado-Aparicio, R. Granetz, A. Hubbard, S. Shiraiwa and, S. Houshmandyar, "Helical Core Formation and Evolution During Current Ramp-up in the High-Field Tokamak Alcator C-Mod,” Phys. Plasmas 26, 022501 (2019).

    11. H. Zhao, T. Zhou, Y. Liu, A. Ti, M. E. Austin, S. Houshmandyar, H. Huang, W. L. Rowan, and L. Hu, "Upgrade of the ECE Diagnostic on EAST,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 89, 10H111 (2018).

    12. S. Houshmandyar, M. E. Austin, M. W. Brookman, Y. Liu, W. L. Rowan, and H. Zhao, "Variable Location Channels to Improve Efficiency and Precision for Direct ÑTe Measurements, and High Spatial Resolution Te-Profiles Measurements Using Electron Cyclotron Emission,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 89, 10H109 (2018).

    13. S. Houshmandyar, D. R. Hatch, K. T. Liao, B. Zhao, P. E. Phillips, W. L. Rowan, N. M. Cao, N. T. Howard, A. E. Hubbard, J. W. Hughes, M. Greenwald, and J. E. Rice, "Critical Gradient Scale Length Measurements of ICRF Heated Plasmas at Alcator C-Mod Tokamak,” Phys. Plasmas 25, 042305 (2018).

    14. G. Taylor, M. E. Austin, A. Basile, J. H. Beno, S. Danani, R. Feder, S. Houshmandyar, A. E. Hubbard, D. W. Johnson, A. Khodak, R. Kumar, S. Kumar, A. Ouroura, S. B. Padasalagi, H. Pandya, P. E. Phillips, W. L. Rowan, J. Stillerman, S. Thomas, V. S. Udintsev, G. Vayakis, M. Walsh, and D. Weeks "Update on the status of the ITER ECE Diagnostic Design", EC 19, EPJ Web of Conferences, 147, 02003 (2017).

    15. H. Pandya, R. Kumar, S. Danani, P. Shrishail, S. Thomas, V. Kumar, G. Taylor, A. Khodak, W. L. Rowan, S. Houshmandyar, V. S. Udintsev, N. Casal, and M. J. Walsh "ITER ECE Diagnostics: Design Progress of IN-DA and the Diagnostic Role for Physics", IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 823, 012033 (2017).

    16. S. Houshmandyar, Z. L. Yang, P. E. Phillips, W. L. Rowan, A. E. Hubbard, J. E. Rice, J. W. Hughes, S. M. Wolfe "Temperature Gradient Scale Length Measurement: A High Accuracy Application of Electron Cyclotron Emission Without Calibration,” Rev. Sci. Instrum., 87, 11E101 (2016).

    17. W. L. Rowan, S. Houshmandyar, P. E. Phillips, M. E. Austin, J. H. Beno, A. E. Hubbard, A. Khodak, A. Ouroura, and G. Taylor "Physics Design of the In-vessel Collection Optics for the ITER Electron Cyclotron Emission Diagnostic,” Rev. Sci. Instrum. 87, 11E132, (2016).

    18. L. F. Delgado-Aparicio, J. E. Rice, E. Edlund, I. Cziegler, L. Sugiyama, D. A. Gates, J. Terry, S. Wolfe, C. Gao, T. Golfinopoulos, J. Irby, R. Granetz, Y. Lin, S. Wukitch, M. Greenwald, A. Hubbard, J. W. Hughes, M. Porkolab, E. Marmar, S. Houshmandyar, P. Phillips, and W. L. Rowan "Locked-mode Avoidance and Recovery without External Momentum Input Using Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating", IAEA (2016).

    19. E. E. Scime, P. A. Keiter, M. M. Balkey, J. L. Kline, X. Sun, A. M. Keesee, R. A. Hardin, I. A. Biloiu, 
      S. Houshmandyar, S. Chakraborty-Thakur, J. Carr Jr., M. Galante, D. McCarren, and S. Sears, "The Hot hELicon eXperiment and the Large Experiment on Instabilities and Anisotropy", J. Plasma Phys. 81, 345810103 (2014).

    20. S. Houshmandyar, X. Yang, and R. Magee, "High resolution ion Doppler spectroscopy at Prairie View Rotamak", Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10D506 (2012).

    21. X. Yang, S. Houshmandyar, O. Dada, E. Reddic, and T. S. Huang, "High sensitivity, low noise Mirnov coil array on Prairie View Rotamak", Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 10E304 (2012).

    22. S. Houshmandyar, and E. E. Scime, "Enhanced neutral depletion in a static helium helicon discharge", Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. 21, 035008 (2012).

    23. S. Houshmandyar, and E. E. Scime, "Ducted kinetic Alfvén waves in plasma with steep density gradients", Phys. Plasmas 18, 11211(2011).

    24. S. Houshmandyar, S. Sears, S. C. Thakur, J. Carr Jr., M. Galante, and E. Scime, "Measurements of neutral helium density in helicon plasmas", Rev. Sci. Instrum. 81, 10704D (2010).

    25. E. Scime, I. Biloiu, J. Carr Jr., S. C. Thakur, M. Galante, A. Hansen, S. Houshmandyar, A. M. Keesee, D. McCarren, S.  Sears, C. Biloiu, and X. Sun “Time-resolved measurements of double layer evolution in expanding plasma", Phys. Plasmas 17, 055701 (2010).

    26. B. Shokri, S. Houshmandyar, "Nonlinear gain and threshold current variations in a periodically corrugated waveguide", J. Plasma Phys. 72, 409 (2006).

Awards

  • Finalization of the interface inside Equatorial Port #9 to fix quasi-optical coupling between internal and external parts of ITER-ECE diagnostics, ITER Organization (2019)
  • Long pulse high performance scenarios and control in tokamaks, USDOE (2019)
  • Long pulse high performance scenarios and control, USDOE (2019)