Fatima Ebrahimi is an Iranian-American physicist and inventor. She carries out theoretical and computational
plasma physics research for applications including
fusion energy and space and astrophysical plasmas.[1][2]
Biography
Ebrahimi received BSc and MSc degrees in physics from
Tehran Polytechnic in 1993 and 1996, respectively, and a PhD in plasma physics at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2003 under the supervision of Stewart Prager.[3][2] Her approach to plasma physics has been characterized as "applying knowledge from her fusion research in the laboratory to astrophysics and vice versa".[2] She is a principal research physicist at the
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Theory Department and an affiliated research scholar at the Department of Astrophysical Sciences,
Princeton University.[4]
Ebrahimi's most notable contribution to science has been her research on how plasmoids (plasma objects enclosed by magnetic fields) can be used to create the initial plasma current in compact
spherical tokamaks[5][6] and produce thrust for
space propulsion.[7][8][9][10][11][12] Her proposed electromagnetic
plasma thruster utilizes
magnetic reconnection for magnetic-to-kinetic energy conversion, emulating the physical mechanism that generates solar flares.[13] Simulations on
NERSC supercomputers[14] demonstrated that thrust is generated by expulsion of continuously created plasmoids, when
magnetic helicity is injected into an annular thruster channel.[15]
Princeton University has a patent pending on the thruster technology,[13] which "may come to be known as the Ebrahimi Drive – an engine inspired by fusion reactors and the incredible power of solar Coronal Mass Ejections".[8] Ebrahimi has also done research on the
magnetorotational instability and demonstrated in global simulations its importance for the
dynamo of astrophysical disks[16] and for plasmoid reconnection.[17]
^
abcAwe, Stephanie (April 5, 2022).
"A Future for Nuclear Fusion". On Wisconsin Magazine.
Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
^"Fatima Ebrahimi". UW Department of Physics. April 5, 2022.
Archived from the original on June 13, 2021. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
^"Fatima Ebrahimi". PPPL Theory Department. April 5, 2022.
Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
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