Fourth NIF-MIT PhD Student Defends His Thesis

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate student Alex Zylstra recently defended his thesis as part of the NIF PhD thesis program. Zylstra is the fourth member of the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center’s High Energy Density (HED) Physics Division, along with Hans Rinderknecht, Mike Rosenberg, and Dan Casey, to earn his PhD while working for NIF and the OMEGA Laser Facility at the University of Rochester (see "NIF-MIT Partnership Mints New PhDs").

Rich Petrasso, who heads the HED Physics Division, said Zylstra "did an outstanding job at his defense." Petrasso expressed thanks to "all of our NIF colleagues and friends who worked closely with Alex in helping him to implement experiments and to obtain excellent NIF data that, along with outstanding OMEGA data, formed the foundation of his PhD."

Zylstra was one of four MIT students—along with Rinderknecht (a 2015 LLNL Lawrence Fellow), Rosenberg, and Hong Sio—who played an important role in the March 12, 2013, NIF experiment in which a record DD fusion yield was achieved. They were part of the team responsible for fielding nuclear spectrometers that revealed critical internal plasma conditions of the implosion.

Zylstra, who has accepted a Reines Postdoctoral Fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratory, also was lead author of a Physics of Plasmas paper published last November titled, "The effect of shock dynamics on compressibility of ignition-scale National Ignition Facility Implosions."

Five more MIT PhD students, including Sio, are now participating in the NIF PhD thesis program.

"This is a very exciting time for all of us, especially for the newer students, to be involved in the NIF program as we work toward ignition and outstanding HED science achievable at the NIF," Petrasso said.