Mervi Mantsinen

Group Manager

Our group leader’s reflections to mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

From left to right, top: Lara San Martin, Marta Florido, Alba Gordó. From left to right, bottom: Ruth Mora Soto and Mervi Mantsinen

Our Fusion group is hosted by Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), which is one of the many research centers in Spain and worldwide that still have steps to take to reach gender equality.

Despite the recent progress there is still a great deal to do in this area given the fact that only about 25% of the BSC workforce is female and among the research groups only about 20% are led by female scientist. Moreover, none of the nine directors of the center is a woman, while the situation with the Governance Boards has improved slightly over the past years, with 18% and 27% of women currently in the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee and the Scientific Advisor Board, respectively. Our gender and diversity plan to improve this situation is available here.

Our Fusion group is one of the few groups at BSC led by a woman researcher, i.e. myself ICREA Research Prof. Dr Mervi Mantsinen.

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47th EPS Plasma Physics conference moves online

More than three years ago, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) was chosen as the Local Organizer (LOC) for the 47th European Physical Society (EPS) Conference on Plasma Physics on June 22-26, 2020, in Sitges, Spain. In April 2020, due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the LOC together with the EPS Plasma Physics Division Board and the Programme Committee came to the conclusion that it is best to postpone the conference by one year to June 21-25, 2021.

Unfortunately, the outbreak is still on-going, and we have reluctantly had to conclude that it is not possible to deliver an in-person event in Sitges in June 2021. This decision reflects concerns and uncertainties arising from the present public health situation, which will inevitably affect all aspects of conference organization and travel on the relevant timescale.

The conference together with its satellite meeting will take place online. The dates of the conference remain unchanged: 21-25 June 2021. Please find our joint official announcement below which is also available on the conference web site.

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Our latest papers in Nuclear Fusion journal

The latest number  of the prestigious Nuclear Fusion journal co-published by IAEA and IOP Publishing is a Special Issue of selected papers originating from the 16th IAEA technical meeting on energetic particles in magnetic confinement systems—theory of plasma instabilities. Held in Shizuoka, Japan, on 3–6 September 2019, this meeting brought together about 100 experts from nuclear fusion research sites worldwide to discuss the physics of energetic particles and plasma instabilities, at the first joint meeting from the two scientific disciplines.

The Special Issue contains the following three papers with contributions from our group related to heating fusion plasmas  with electromagnetic waves in the ion cyclotron range of frequencies (ICRF) in ITER and JET.

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FUSION CODES II: our new research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation

We are pleased to announce that our group has been awarded a new research project within the State R&D Program Oriented to the Challenges of the Society 2019 in Spain. It was one of the almost 3000 projects financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation with a total program budget of 363.13 M€.

Our new project FUSION CODES II is a continuation of our earlier FUSION CODES project (2016-2019) by three more years. As its predecessor, it is directed towards contributing to the development of nuclear fusion as a safe, clean, and virtually limitless energy source for future generations. In particular, it is directed towards ITER, an international nuclear fusion R&D project, which is currently building the world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor in southern France. ITER aims to demonstrate that fusion energy is scientifically and technologically feasible. It is the bridge towards DEMO, a first fusion energy plant that will demonstrate large-scale production of electricity.

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Applications are now open for IAEA’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme to Push for More Women in Nuclear

Source: IAEA

The IAEA Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme (MSCFP) seeks to inspire and support young women to pursue a career in nuclear science and technology, nuclear safety and security, or non-proliferation. The application process has opened for female students interested in applying for a scholarship from the programme towards their Master’s degrees in nuclear science and technology, nuclear safety and security or non-proliferation.

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