Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion (Polytech-SOKENDAI)
15 — 26 JULY, 2019
Do you want to learn more about controlled nuclear fusion? Then this course is for you!



Get a unique opportunity to go deeper into physics and enjoy staying in the most beautiful city of Russia! Come to Saint-Petersburg and reveal a marvelous spirit of our lovely city!
This is a joint program developed in cooperation with School of Physical Sciences of SOKENDAI (the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan).
The course is suitable as the first plasma physics course or an add-on course for senior undergraduate students and graduate students.
The primary objective of the course is to present the fundamentals of plasma physics particularly highlighting high-temperature plasma physics and its applications to controlled fusion. The course begins with an overview of plasma phenomena and their applications. The lectures cover Coulomb collisions, single particle motion in magnetic field, magnetic traps, principles of controlled fusion, plasma heating and diagnostics. The program also includes study visits to a tokamak laboratory and a laboratory for plasma technologies.
The students will acquire and consolidate skills and competence corresponding to the beginning of the first semester of the plasma physics course at Peter the Great Polytechnic University.
Program dates:
Arrival: Jul 13 – 14, 2019
Classes:: Jul 15 – 26, 2019
Departure: Jul 27 – 28, 2019
Duration: 2 weeks
ECTS credits: 4.0
Participation fee:
Early bird registration fee: 510 euro
Regular registration fee: 590 euro
Participation fee includes tuition fee, study materials, visits to companies and cultural program.
Masters students from FuseNet member universities can request financial support for attending the summer school through www.fusenet.eu/funds. Application for funding is available through the website as well.
The cultural program includes:
- Boat city tour for students to get acquainted with the beauty of the city.
- Excursion to the Hermitage, one of the world’s largest and oldest museums of fine art.
- Pub Quiz in the city center of St. Petersburg.
- Visit to the “Baltika” Brewery/"Coca-Cola" factory where students can learn about the construction and logistic peculiarities of the plant.
- Picnic at the seashore of the Gulf of Finland where students can enjoy Russian style barbecue (optional, for extra price).
- Excursion to Pushkin, former tzar summer residence famous for its palace and park ensemble. Students will visit the outstanding Catherine Palace with glorious Amber room (optional, for extra price).
- Excursion to Peterhof palace-ensemble with picturesque gardens, a countless number of fountains and giant golden statues (optional, for extra price).



Deadline for registration:
Early bird deadline: - March 25,2019
Regular deadline:
- for non-EU citizens: April 22, 2019
- for EU citizens: May 27, 2019
- Knowledge of Calculus and General Physics corresponding to the first two years of a Bachelor's degree program in physics, mathematics, technology etc.
- Good command of English. All classes and extracurricular activities are conducted in English. Knowledge of the Russian language is not required.
- Applicants are expected to have at least 2 years of University level studies.
Course description
4 ECTS
The course is intended as the first plasma physics course however it is also suitable for senior undergraduate students and graduate students.
- Plasma phenomena on Earth and in the Universe; historical overview of plasma physics; contemporary research areas and technological applications of plasmas; studies of controlled nuclear fusion.
- Definition of plasma; quasineutrality, Debye length, plasma frequency.
- Coulomb collisions, Rutherford’s formula, Coulomb logarithm
- Motion of a single charged particle in magnetic field; Larmor radius, drifts, magnetic traps.
- Controlled nuclear fusion; Lawson criterion and ignition criterion.
- Principles of plasma heating with electromagnetic waves and neutral beam injection.
- Principles of plasma diagnostics, active and passive measurements, line-integral data, Doppler broadening.
- Survival Russian.
Professors and lecturers:
P.R. Goncharov, Ph.D., Polytech, Russia;
N. Tamura, Ph.D., SOKENDAI, Japan.
Program partners:
SOKENDAI: The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (Japan)
A.F. Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute and Institute of Electrophysics and Electric Power of Russian Academy of Sciences
Contacts
- summerschool@spbstu.ru
- +7 (812) 534-25-31
- +7 (812) 534-13-65
- room 227, 28, Grazhdanskii prospect, 195220, St.Petersburg, Russia