Heidbrink's Former and Current Ph.D. Students and Postdocs


  • Hau Duong , Studies of fast ion confinement in the DIII-D Tokamak, graduated c. 1994, currently employed by Nanostream (biomedical research and development).
  • Emil Ruskov , Studies of fast ion confinement in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor using beam "blips", graduated c. 1996.
  • Ed Carolipio , The effect of Helical Field Perturbations on Energetic Ion Confinement in the DIII-D Tokamak, graduated 2000 (navigation research and development).
  • Jing Fang , Studies of Second Harmonic Generation in semiconductor processing, graduated c. 2000, currently employed by Intel (semiconductor research and development).
  • George Watson , Ion species mix and ion density measurements using radio frequency waves, graduated 2003, (military research and development).
  • Liangji Zhao , Measurements of classical transport of fast ions in the Large Plasma Device, graduated 2004, currently employed by FarTech (fusion research).
  • Yadong Luo , Thesis: Fast-ion D-alpha diagnostic on DIII-D, graduated 2007, currently working in finance in Boston
  • Yang Zhang , Thesis project: Fast ions and shear Alfven waves, graduated 2008, (technology entrepreneur)
  • Wayne Harris , Thesis project: Ion flow measurements and plasma current analysis in the Irvine Field Reversed Configuration, graduated 2009, (industrial research and development).
  • Deyong Liu , Thesis project: Fast-ion studies in the National Spherical Torus Experiment: Transport by instabilities and acceleration by high harmonic fast waves, graduated 2009, currently employed by General Atomics (magnetic fusion).
  • Erik Trask , Thesis project: Macroscopic electromagnetic properties of the Irvine Field Reversed Configuration: equilibrium, power balance and fluctuations, graduated 2010, currently employed by TAE Technologies (fusion research).
  • Shu Zhou, Thesis project: Turbulent transport of energetic ions and thermal plasma, graduated 2011, currently employed by Intel (plasma process engineer)
  • Christopher Muscatello, Thesis project: Velocity-space resolved fast-ion measurements in the DIII-D tokamak, graduated 2012, currently employed by General Atomics (fusion research)
  • Thomas Roche , Thesis project: Impurity transport in a field reversed configuration experiment, graduated 2012 [Note: McWilliams is the primary advisor], currently employed by TAE Technologies (fusion research)
  • Nathan Bolte, Thesis project: passive FIDA light in DIII-D, graduated 2015, currenty employed by TAE Technologies (fusion research)
  • Adam Preweisch, Thesis project: Fast ion transport by magnetic fluctuations, graduated 2015.
  • Luke Stagner, Thesis project: Inference of the fast-ion distribution function, graduated 2018; currently employed by General Atomics (fusion research).
  • Daniel Lin, Thesis project: FIDA measurements on DIII-D and JT-60SA; graduated 2022; currently employed by General Atomics (diagnostics division)
  • Genevieve Degrandchamp, Thesis project: Ion cyclotron emission in DIII-D ; graduated 2022; currently employed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (fusion research).
  • Alvin Garcia, Thesis project: Spin Polarized Fuel and Artificial Intelligence in Fusion Energy at DIII-D ; graduated 2023; currently employed as an ORISE postdoc (fusion research).
  • Kenneth Gage, Thesis project: Fast-ion losses and transport in DIII-D and ASDEX-Upgrade
  • Garrett Prechel, Thesis project: Solid state neutral particle analyzers on MAST-U and NSTX-U; inference of the fast-ion distribution function
  • Wataru Hayashi, Thesis project: Fast-ion confinement in the LHD
  • Mario Podesta (former postdoc), FIDA on NSTX, currently employed by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
  • David Pace (former postdoc), fast-ion research on DIII-D, currently employed by General Atomics
  • Alessandro Bortolon (former postdoc), FIDA on NSTX, currently employed by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
  • Xi Chen (former postdoc), Light-ion beam probe on DIII-D, currently employed by General Atomics
  • Deyong Liu (former postdoc), fast-ion research on NSTX, currently employed by General Atomics
  • Cami Collins (former postdoc), FIDA research on DIII-D, currently employed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Guangzhou Hao (former postdoc), FIDA research at NSTX-U, currently employed by Southwestern Institute of Physics (Chengdu)
  • Xiaodi Du (former postdoc), Imaging neutral particle analyzer and fast-ion research on DIII-D, currently employed by General Atomics
  • Jeff Lestz (former postdoc), Instabilities driven by fast ions and runaways near the ion cyclotron frequency on DIII-D and LHD, currently employed by General Atomics.
  • Javi Gonzalez-Martin (former postdoc), Trapped particle imaging neutral particle analyzer and fast-ion research on DIII-D and JET, currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Seville.
  • Bo Schmidt (incoming postdoc), Advanced data analysis techniques for fast-ion diagnostics at DIII-D.
  • Jose Rueda Rueda (incoming postdoc), Fast-ion fluctuation measurements and analysis at DIII-D.