BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:Icfo X-PUBLISHED-TTL:P1W BEGIN:VEVENT UID:6a0364133bc30 DTSTART:20230113T110000Z SEQUENCE:0 TRANSP:OPAQUE LOCATION:ICFO Auditorium SUMMARY:ICFO | PABLO RODRIGUEZ-FERNANDEZ CLASS:PUBLIC DESCRIPTION:BIO\nDr. Pablo Rodriguez-Fernandez works as a research scientis t at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Plasma Science and Fu sion Center. \; Pablo studied Industrial Engineering at the Polytechni c University of Madrid (2013)\, and holds a master&rsquo\;s degree in Mech anical Engineering from Drexel University (2014). Despite his engineering background\, Pablo focused on the study of fundamental transport phenomena with computational plasma physics for this doctoral degree\, which he rec eived in 2019 from MIT.\nIn his work\, Pablo utilizes state-of-the-art mac hine learning techniques to solve complex physics and engineering optimiza tion problems. He has been leading the efforts of predicting the performan ce of the SPARC tokamak\, poised to be the first magnetic-confinement fusi on device to study net-energy plasmas\, and his papers on the topic are am ong the most read in Nuclear Fusion. Despite his young age\, Pablo has aut hored over 30 peer-reviewed journal papers\, a third of which as first aut hor. He has been the recipient of important awards during his academic car eer\, including the Manson Benedict Award and Del Favero Doctoral Thesis P rize at MIT\, and was listed by Forbes magazine as part of their 30 Under 30 list in Science in 2021.\n \;\nABSTRACT\nThe private company Common wealth Fusion Systems (CFS)\, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Inst itute of Technology (MIT)\, is constructing SPARC\, the first magnetic-con finement fusion device that will create net-energy plasmas\, a big milesto ne in the quest for fusion energy. This is an ambitious goal that CFS and MIT expect to achieve in the next few years thanks to the development of h igh-temperature superconductor technology. Both empirical models and first -principles simulations indicate that SPARC will be able to reach burning- plasma conditions\, producing up to 10 times more thermal power than absor bed. This will allow scientists at CFS and MIT study plasmas that are rele vant for future electricity-producing power plants. In this talk\, Dr. Pab lo Rodriguez-Fernandez will introduce basic concepts to understand how the rmonuclear fusion works\, what the SPARC project is and the advantages of the high magnetic field path to fusion energy.\n \;\n \; DTSTAMP:20260512T173203Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR