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NSF Funds $30 Million Turbulence Research Center Focused on Predictive Modeling for Fusion Energy

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has established a new Science and Technology Center with a total funding of $30 million, focusing on the understanding and prediction of turbulence. The project targets application scenarios such as fusion energy, astrophysics, and hypersonic flight, aiming to tackle the challenges of cross-scale turbulence modeling and prediction in complex physical systems. Researchers and students from San José State University (SJSU) will participate in the related research. This is a three-dimensional simulated turbulent velocity field at the core collapse point of a massive star before a supernova explosion. Image credit: S. Couch, based on research by Fields and Couch published in The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 921, Page 28.

2026-08-27

Indian research team uses supercomputer to track microscopic mechanisms of turbulence in dusty plasmas

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Jammu (IIT Jammu), in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur), used supercomputer simulations to study the origin of chaos in dusty plasmas. By tracking the motion of millions of individual particles, the study revealed how turbulent energy is transferred from large-scale vortices to microscopic thermal motion of particles, providing a new computational perspective for nuclear fusion plasma research and astrophysical process analysis. Plasma is often referred to as the fourth state of matter. Unlike solids, liquids, and gases, atoms in plasma are ionized, forming a system composed of positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons. When tiny solid dust particles enter the plasma, these particles absorb electrons and become negatively charged, subsequently undergoing complex interactions with surrounding particles to form dusty plasma.

2026-08-19

Two IPP studies reveal edge turbulence mechanisms in fusion plasmas from first principles

On August 10, 2026, two research teams at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) independently published findings that, for the first time, explain key phenomena in the extremely thin edge layer of fusion plasmas starting from fundamental physics equations. Both papers were published in Physical Review Letters, with one highlighted as an editor's suggestion. For stable operation of a fusion power plant, two requirements must be met simultaneously: on the one hand, the plasma at temperatures of around 100 million degrees Celsius must be effectively confined to achieve fusion ignition conditions; on the other hand, the generated heat must be distributed over a sufficiently large area to prevent damage to the device walls from excessive local heat loads. Whether this conflict can be resolved depends largely on a region only a few centimeters thick at the plasma edge.

2026-08-10