Physics Colloquium with Elizabeth Paul
Event starts on this day
Jan
14
2026
Featured Speaker(s):
Elizabeth Paul
Event starts on this day
Jan
14
2026
Title: Advances in Optimization for Stellarator Design
Description
Abstract: A stellarator confines plasma with asymmetric toroidal magnetic fields for fusion energy applications. The immense freedom in the stellarator design space provides opportunities for reducing engineering complexity and improving performance. Although the magnetic field may be far from symmetric, modern stellarators take advantage of “hidden symmetries” for enhanced confinement. This talk will provide an overview of recent advances in stellarator optimization and their application to the design of new experiments in the Columbia Plasma Laboratory. The Columbia Stellarator eXperiment (CSX) will build on the success of the Columbia Non-neutral Torus (CNT) to confine a small aspect ratio quasisymmetric plasma with two shaped interlinked coils. Using this device, we will explore the physics of quasiaxisymmetry and demonstrate non-insulated HTS technology for non-planar magnets.
Bio: Elizabeth Paul joined the Applied Physics faculty at Columbia University in 2023 as an Assistant Professor. Prior to joining Columbia University, Dr. Paul was a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University. Dr. Paul received her AB in Astrophysical Sciences with concentrations in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Applications of Computing from Princeton University in 2015. In 2020 she received her PhD in Physics from the University of Maryland, College Park. In 2021 Dr. Paul received the Marshall N. Rosenbluth Award from the American Physical Society in recognition of her doctoral work, “For pioneering the development of adjoint methods and application of shape calculus for fusion plasmas, enabling a new derivative-based method of stellarator design.”
Location
Physics Colloquia are held each Wednesday beginning at 3:00pm in the John A. Wheeler Lecture Hall (PMA 4.102) unless otherwise noted.