Fatima Ebrahimi is an Iranian-American physicist and inventor. She carries out theoretical and computational

plasma physics Plasma () is a state of matter characterized by the presence of a significant portion of charged particles in any combination of ions or electrons. It is the most abundant form of ordinary matter in the universe, mostly in stars (including th ...

research for applications including

fusion energy Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices d ...

and space and astrophysical plasmas.

Biography

Ebrahimi received BSc and MSc degrees in physics from

Tehran Polytechnic Amirkabir University of Technology (AUT) (), also called the Tehran Polytechnic, is a public technological university located in Tehran, Iran. Founded in 1958, AUT is the oldest technical university established in Iran. It is referred to as the ...

in 1993 and 1996, respectively, and a PhD in plasma physics at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

in 2003 under the supervision of Stewart Prager. Her approach to plasma physics has been characterized as "applying knowledge from her fusion research in the laboratory to astrophysics and vice versa". She is a principal research physicist at the

Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory for plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. Its primary mission is research into and development of fusion as an energy source. It is know ...

Theory Department and an affiliated research scholar at the Department of Astrophysical Sciences,

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. 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 and produce thrust for

space propulsion Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. In-space propulsion exclusively deals with propulsion systems used in the vacuum of space and should not be confused with space launch or atmospheric e ...

. Her proposed electromagnetic

plasma thruster A plasma propulsion engine is a type of electric propulsion that generates thrust from a quasi-neutral plasma. This is in contrast with ion thruster engines, which generate thrust through extracting an ion current from the plasma source, w ...

utilizes

magnetic reconnection Magnetic reconnection is a physical process occurring in electrically conducting Plasma (physics), plasmas, in which the magnetic topology is rearranged and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, thermal energy, and particle accelerati ...

for magnetic-to-kinetic energy conversion, emulating the physical mechanism that generates solar flares. Simulations on

NERSC The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) is a high-performance computing (supercomputer) research facility that was founded in 1974. The National User Facility is operated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for th ...

supercomputers demonstrated that thrust is generated by expulsion of continuously created plasmoids, when

magnetic helicity In plasma physics, magnetic helicity is a measure of the linkage, twist, and writhe of a magnetic field. Magnetic helicity is a useful concept in the analysis of systems with extremely low resistivity, such as astrophysical systems. When resistiv ...

is injected into an annular thruster channel. Princeton University has a patent pending on the thruster technology, 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". Ebrahimi has also done research on the magnetorotational instability and demonstrated in global simulations its importance for the

dynamo "Dynamo Electric Machine" (end view, partly section, ) A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator. Dynamos employed electromagnets for self-starting by using residual magnetic field left in the iron cores ...

of astrophysical disks and for plasmoid reconnection.

References

External links

* University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Iranian women engineers {{Improve categories, date=June 2022