Last Friday, June 12, our group leader ICREA Prof. Mervi Mantsinen participated as an examiner in the defence of the Habilitation Thesis to Supervise Research by Dr David Zarzoso at Aix Marseille University, France.
Other jury members were Dr Sadruddin Benkadda, Prof. Alain Ghizzo, Dr. Taina Kurki-Suonio, Prof. Jean-Marcelo Rax, Prof. Raúl Sánchez, and Prof. Howard Wilson. The event took place via videoconference due to the present pandemia circumstances with strict social distancing measures which prevented the celebration of this event in person.
Entitled “Multi-scale approach of the instabilities in fusion plasmas within the gyro-kinetic formalism”, Dr Zarzoso’s Habilitation Thesis presents a collection of theoretical and computational analyses related to tokamak plasma instabilities and turbulence, exploring the consequences of the interaction between coherent structures including electrostatic and electromagnetic plasma instabilities.
The event started with a presentation by Dr Zarzoso, which was well-structured and rich both in scientific results and supervision activities. Overall, he demonstrated a very good knowledge of the complex physics of kinetic instabilities and anomalous transport in tokamak type reactors by highlighting original results in the field of gyrokinetic modeling.
The presentation was followed by a question and answer session that gave rise to lively discussions with the members of the jury. The jury considered that Dr. Zarzoso undoubtedly has the capacity to direct research and awarded him his congratulations and encouragement for the rest of his scientific career.
We join the jury in the congratulations and send our best wishes to David in his next steps!