Bio
Jake joined ORNL in December 2020 as an Alvin M. Weinberg Fellow, working in the Power Exhaust and Particle Control Group of the Fusion Energy Division, part of the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate. His research interests include plasma-material interactions, tokamak edge and divertor physics, and integrated modeling of fusion systems. Jake is currently working on incorporating advances in far scrape-off layer physics into the design of tokamak first wall components, with the goal of improving the reliability and affordability of the main wall of a fusion pilot plant.
Prior to joining ORNL, Jake was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville, as part of the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Postdoctoral Research Program. His work focused on understanding the transport of heavy impurities in the edge plasma of fusion devices, collaborating with the DIII-D tokamak facility.
Jake earned a Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from Princeton University in 2018, a M.A. in Plasma Physics from Princeton University in 2012, and a B.A. in Physics from Cornell University in 2010. His dissertation focused on modeling of wall material migration in the NSTX-U spherical tokamak, with an emphasis on the evolution of applied thin-film coatings.