Tariq Rafiq is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Mechanics at Lehigh University. Prof. Rafiq is a nuclear fusion theorist and modeler, who has made contributions to the progress of controlled fusion plasma science in areas that contribute to the development of nuclear fusion as a practical energy source. He has developed physics-based fluid/kinetic hybrid energy, particle, and momentum transport models for magnetically confined plasmas that are used in whole-device simulations. He has conducted detailed computational studies to validate these models using tokamak fusion devices and to verify them against first-principle codes. His modeling work allows for the identification of specific transport driving mechanisms and lays the foundation for defining and regulating transport in tokamaks. His studies have been used to investigate interactions between various related physical processes, model scenarios, enhance tokamak discharge performance, design new experiments, and extrapolate findings to future thermonuclear fusion devices such as ITER. Prof. Rafiq has publications in journals such as the Journal of Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Physics of Plasmas, Physica Scripta, Computer Physics Communications, Plasma Physics, Entropy, and Fusion Engineering and Design. Additionally, he has received multiple Department of Energy grants as both a principal investigator (PI) and co-principal investigator (co-PI).
Prof. Eugenio Schuster received the B.Sc. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1994, the B.Sc./M.Sc. degree in nuclear engineering from the Balseiro Institute, Bariloche, Argentina, in 1998, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace engineering from the University of California at San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA, in 2000 and 2004. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA. He is an expert in nuclear-fusion plasma control and leads the Lehigh University Plasma Control Laboratory. Prof. Schuster was a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his work on “Nonlinear Control of Plasmas in Nuclear Fusion.” He has been appointed as a Scientist Fellow in Plasma Control by the ITER Organization. Moreover, he has been designated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as an Expert Member of the Integrated Operation Scenarios (IOS) Topical Group within the International Tokamak Physics Activity (ITPA). He is currently serving as Chair of the ITPA-IOS Topical Group. He previously served as Leader of the Operations and Control Topical Group within the U.S. Burning Plasma Organization (BPO) and as the Founder Chair of the Technical Committee on Power Generation with the IEEE Control Systems Society.
