International Workshop on Theory of Fusion Plasmas - Varenna, Italy
Reported by Davide Silvagni. Powered by FuseNet.
The Joint Varenna-Lausanne International Workshop on the theory of fusion plasmas took place from 29 August until 2 September in the Italian city of Varenna, situated right next to lake Como. The workshop consisted of plenary lectures and poster sessions about topics including transport, heating and current drive, plasma instabilities and the theoretical aspects of plasma-edge and divertor physics.
Encouraging research
The conference was very interesting, full of innovative talks about recent developments in the field of plasma physics. Nevertheless, I liked the poster sessions even more, since they gave me the opportunity to share some of my own work: an analysis of the impact of two windowing functions on the bicoherence spectrum of plasmas. These spectra are typically used as diagnostic tools for plasma turbulence. During the poster session, lots of people were interested in my work and I was able to exchange useful information. I also received good advice from expert researchers, who suggested me to pursue our work using experimental signals, in order to get a clearer picture of the windows effect on bicoherence spectra. All comments I received, have strongly encouraged me to keep on researching!
Lake Como: a breathtaking location
Another amazing, hard to forget, experience of this workshop was its location: the conference took place in Villa Monastero, a luxurious villa which is literally situated on top of Lake Como. From the Enrico Fermi conference room (where Fermi has given talks in the past) one can go downstairs, exit the villa and you will find only two spiraling columns between yourself and the shining water of the lake.
Of course, there were also different cultural activities scheduled during the workshop. On Tuesday, for instance, we had a boat tour at the west side of Lake Como. Needlessly to say that it was breathtaking. Around 8 pm we reached the big terrace of Grand Hotel Cadenabbia, where we had a great time, eating awesome food and discussing physics, while enjoying the amazing panorama. On Thursday we attended a relaxing piano concert in Villa Cipressi before having a pleasant dinner in the restaurant of the villa: everything was prepared with attention to the smallest detail and the result was incredible.
Building world-wide friendships
The Joint Varenna – Lausanne international workshop on theory of fusion plasmas is one of the best experience I have ever had. The beautiful location and the great Italian food made sure to create a relaxed atmosphere among all participants, which enormously helped to connect with other researchers in the field. I have met an astonishing amount of people during the workshop, from all over the world: Japan, Italy, Germany, UK, USA, France, Finland (and the list can continue). Everyone with a sincere enthusiasm for plasma physics. With some of the participants I build friendships which are continuing nowadays by exchanging mails, articles and pictures, which is really one of the best reward I could have got from the event!
So, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to FuseNet for making this amazing experience possible for me!
