Professional Background

Ben Zhu is a theoretical and computational physicist with general interests in fusion and laboratory plasmas. He received his BS degree in applied physics from the University of Science and Technology of China (2008), his MS degree in applied science from the University of California, Davis (2009), and a PhD in physics from Dartmouth College (2017). His PhD dissertation investigated the interaction between turbulence, transport, and spontaneously generated shear flow at the tokamak edge region using a global 3D two-fluid numerical model. He worked as a research associate at Dartmouth College before joining LLNL in 2018.

Research Interests

Current research topics include fluid and kinetic theories; basic plasma instabilities; turbulence, transport, and disruption processes in the magnetic confined fusion devices; machine learning applications in plasma physics; and high performance computing.

 

Ph.D., Physics, Dartmouth College, 2017

M.S., Applied Science, University of California at Davis, 2009

B.S., Applied Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2008

B. Zhu, M. Francisquez, and B. Rogers, “Up-down symmetry breaking in global tokamak edge simulations,” Nuclear Fusion 58, 106039 (2018).

B. Zhu, M. Francisquez, and B. Rogers, “GDB: a global 3D two-fluid code for plasma turbulence and transport at tokamak edge region,” Computer Physics Communications 232, 46 (2018).

B. Rogers, B. Zhu, and M. Francisquez, “Gyrokinetic theory of slab universal modes and the non-existence of the gradient drift coupling (GDC) instability,” Physics of Plasmas 25, 052115 (2018).

M. Francisquez, B. Zhu, and B. Rogers, “Global 3D Braginskii simulations of the tokamak edge region of IWL discharges,” Nuclear Fusion 57, 116049 (2017).

B. Zhu, M. Francisquez, and B. Rogers, “Global 3D two-fluid simulation of tokamak edge region: turbulence, transport, profile evolution and spontaneous E×B rotation,” Physics of Plasmas 24, 055903 (2017).