Culham Plasma Physics Summer School - Culham Science Centre, UK
Reported by Žiga Štancar. Powered by FuseNet.

I have spent the last two weeks of July in the beautiful St. Edmund Hall college in Oxford in order to attend the 53rd Culhma Plasma Physics Summer School. I have decided to attend the school because I work in the field of fusion neutronics, which is closely connected to plasma physics, and hoped that the diverse curriculum of the summer school would shed some light on the problems I have been dealing with during the completion of my PhD thesis. The course directors have made sure that the time spent in Culham has been fruitful – due to a variety of talks on plasma related topics such as Magnetohydrodynamics and Diagnostics and excellent lecturers. The classes have been enriched with problem solving sessions and tours of the JET and MAST fusion devices and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratories.

Another important aspect of the summer school was socializing with other fusion PhD students from all around the globe, which enabled the sharing of knowledge, experience and possible plans for future collaborations. The time spent together was filled with enthusiasm and most importantly optimism for the future. After all we are aiming at drastically changing the way humankind produces electricity, making the process more environmentally friendly, sustainable and accessible. Two banquets held at the dining hall of St. Edmund Hall college and a boat ride along the river Thames only emphasized the relaxed spirits of the group resulting in heated debates and merry dancing.

Attending the school has proved to be a great investment in my knowledge of plasma physics and provided a lot of motivation for futher work on my PhD thesis. I would like to extend my gratitude to the directors of the course for making the summer school one of the best experiences possible and to FuseNet for enabling me to attend this course through their student funding schemes.