News

On Tuesday March 26, 2024, Steven Stemmley held his final doctoral defense. His presentation on the “Liquid Lithium Loop Development For Open Surface Plasma Facing Components” earned him the completion of his PhD. Congratulations to Dr. Steven Stemmley for his PhD! Professor Dr. David. N. Ruzic was his advisor.

On Monday March 25, 2024, Andrew Shone held his final doctoral defense. His presentation on the “Helium Retention Induced by In-Operando Lithium Evaporation” earned him the completion of his PhD. Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Shone for his PhD!

NPRE professor David Ruzic and his Illinois Plasma Institute have been featured in the Fall 2023 issue of Limitless, The Grainger College of Engineering‘s biannual magazine. In the article, Ruzic talks about IPI’s mission to “rethink existing pathways to commercialization of new technologies developed in academic research settings.”

Read the story here: https://grainger.illinois.edu/…/illinois-plasma-institute

CPMI and IPI graduate students will present the posters in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on March 22, 2024 at 4pm. They will either highlight a research project or provide a summary of all the research group’s activities. They will present “Fusion Liquid Metal Research”, “The Illinois Plasma Institute: Graphene, Radical Probes, EUV, and More”, and “Center for Plasma Material Interactions: Plasma Processing and Diagnostics”.

The researchers of Center for Plasma Material Interactions (CPMI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) will be part of a landmark program announced by the Department of Energy to support private companies in bringing fusion energy toward technical and commercial viability. As part of the DOE’s multimillion-dollar Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, selected companies will team with U.S. national laboratories, universities, and others to address major technical and commercialization milestones for the successful design of a fusion pilot plant. Tokamak Energy Inc—the West Virginia-based U.S. subsidiary of British company Tokamak Energy Ltd and a longtime partner of the U of I—has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for an award as part of its bold decadal vision for delivering commercial fusion. Research Associate Professor Dr. Andruczyk and Professor Dr. David Ruzic are the principal investigators on the NPRE portion of the project at UIUC.

The Center for Plasma Material Interactions (CPMI) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is looking for a new Postdoctoral Research Associate level, who will work on research areas relevant to plasma material interactions for several industrial applications. In particular, we are looking for expertise in the field of Tokamak and Stellarator Operation, and Liquid Lithium/Metals as well as Chemistry and High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS). The hired postdocs are expected to closely work with Research Associate Professor Dr. Daniel Andruczyk and Professor Dr David Ruzic in managing research activities in the lab and conducting experiments while assisting students with research. Contact: Prof. Daniel Andruczyk (andruczy@illinois.edu) and Prof. David Ruzic (druzic@illinois.edu).

Congratulations Dhruval for being selected as one of the four finalists of this year’s Coburn and Winters (C&W) Student Award in Plasma Science and Technology Division (PSTD) of American Vacuum Society (AVS)!

This is a very important recognition.  We are all proud of you !

As a finalist, Dhruval will receive a cash award of $500, and an opportunity to present his work to the Executive Committee of AVS PSTD commitee for winning the C&W award with additional cash prize and certificate.

At 12:20 pm, Wednesday Nov. 9, 2022, Dhruval is invited to a closed session located in Room 315 (CC) to showcase his work to the jury members of C&W Award. Each candidate will have 10 minutes for the presentation, and another 6 minutes for answering questions. Being a finalist itself is already an achievement and CPMI wishes you the best to win this competition.

This month, Professor David Ruzic was interviewed by UIUC undergraduate Reese Peterson. They discussed his experiment to disinfect N-95 masks with a microwave and spoke about his love for both science and teaching. Read the interview below: 

Professor Ruzic Interview

The works to finish the writing of the invited review paper (to be published in Physics of Plasmas) based on the tutorial invited talk given by Professor Ruzic at APS-DPP were carried out.  Important meetings were celebrated with the two fusion companies collaborating with CPMI. The results from the 2nd and 3rd round of the dynamic exposure to lithium were presented to the company, showing the effects induced in the mechanical properties (tensile stress) and the surface interaction of the selected materials. with the liquid metal of the selected. With TE, the meeting was very fruitful in detailing how to assess the main concerns exposed by the engineering responsibilities of the company, being related to different questions such as: velocity measurements, surface tension and stability, material compatibility, poloidal magnetic field effects and TEMHD driving. The discussion resulted in plans for the best way to continue with the research in order to minimize risks and solve any possible technical/engineering question throughout the project development. Regarding the plasma processing side of the Lab, scientists from Lyten were widely visiting our center to advance in the works being performed on ECAP/laser under their mutual research contract