EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Fusion Power - EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in the Science and Technology of Fusion Energy

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Programme & Speakers

2026 Events:

York: Monday 22nd – Thursday 25th June
Oxford: Monday 21st – Thursday 24th September

York Programme

Course Overview

York FIS 2026 schedule – provisional

This four-day course offers a broad overview of plasma physics, science and technology needed to understand energy generation by fusion power.  Each talk is delivered by an expert in the field, and includes 1 hour of lecture and 30 minutes of discussion with the speaker.

Location: Guildhall in York City Centre

Monday 22nd June

  • UK Fusion Landscape Adam Baker, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
  • Fusion Energy: the conditions and approaches Roddy Vann, University of York
  • Plasma Physics for Fusion Industry Roger Jaspers, Eindhoven University of Technology
  • Materials Science for Fusion Industry Amy Gandy, UKAEA

Tuesday 23rd June

  • The Tokamak Garry Voss, UKAEA
  • Inertial Confinement Fusion Emma Hume, University of York
  • Fusion Power Cycle, and Heating & Current Drive Mark Henderson, UKIFS
  • Tokamak diverters and plasma exhaust Kieran Gibson, University of York 

Wednesday 24th June

  • Diagnostics and Control Hannah Willett, Tokamak Energy
  • Tokamak operational scenarios, the EUROfusion roadmap and how to commission a power plant Fernanda Rimini, UKAEA
  • Panel session: Skills and the Fusion Workforce – Chair: Aneeqa Khan, University of Manchester Panellists: Stephanie Diem (University of Wisconsin – Madison), Paul Roberts (NUVIA), Roddy Vann (University of York)

Thursday 25th June

  • Tritium, lithium and the fusion fuel cycle Phil Edmondson, University of Manchester
  • Magnetic Machines: Alternative Path for Fusion Energy Stephanie Diem, University of Wisconsin – Madison 
  • STEP update Debbie Kempton, UKFE

 

Oxford Programme

Course Overview

Oxford FIS 2026 schedule – provisional

This four-day course covers the engineering applications of fusion. We look at power plant design and the main engineering challenges, then at the economics of getting fusion onto the grid, and the regulatory landscape. Each talk is delivered by an expert in the field, and includes 1 hour of lecture and 30 minutes of discussion with the speaker. 

Location: HB Allen Centre, Keble College, Oxford

Monday 21st September

  • Fusion Power Plant Design (Tokamaks & Magnetic Confinement) Ryan Wagner, International Atomic Energy Agency
  • Fusion Power Plant Design (Inertial Fusion) Hugo Doyle, First Light Fusion
  • Materials Technology for Fusion Tamsin Whitfield, University of Oxford
  • Magnets and Magnet Technology Susie Speller, University of Oxford

Tuesday 22nd September

  • Tritium Breeding Technology Samuel Murphy, University of Lancaster
  • Engineering Management: Case Study
  • Site tours of the national fusion facilities at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy

Wednesday 23rd September

  • Digital Engineering Andy Davis
  • Safety & Regulation
  • Panel – Communicating Fusion

Thursday 24th September

  • JET Decommissioning
  • Fusion Economics
  • Fusion Waste and Waste Management Mark Gilbert, UKAEA
  • The International Fusion Landscape, Howard Wilson, UKIFS

 

Registration details

 

 

  • Garry Voss, UKAEA

    The Tokamak (York)

    Garry Voss is currently working for UKAEA at the Culham Science Centre on Nuclear Fusion where he is the Lead Technical Advisor for Spherical Tokamaks. He is Deputy Chief Engineer for the MAST-Upgrade project (a medium sized spherical tokamak) and also leads the development of the commercial fusion reactor design for the STEP project. He has previously worked on various fusion reactor projects mainly involving spherical tokamaks and also spent some time working in the aerospace industry on the development of space planes. His background is in electro-mechanical and nuclear engineering and the area he is most interested in is the architecture of a fusion device, where striking a balance between the often conflicting requirements of each sub-system is essential.

  • Hannah Willett, Tokamak Energy

    Diagnostics and Control (York)

    Hannah Willett is a Plasma Diagnostician specialising in spectroscopy at Tokamak Energy Ltd in Oxfordshire. She has a PhD in Plasma Physics and Fusion Energy and spent some time working as a tutor in the US before joining Tokamak Energy in 2021. Primarily an experimentalist, Hannah is responsible for maintaining and upgrading the spectroscopic systems on ST40, Tokamak Energy’s magnetic confinement fusion experiment, as well as contributing to the data analysis for measurement of plasma parameters such as temperature and rotation speed.

  • Philip Edmondson, University of Manchester

    Tritium, lithium and the fusion fuel cycle (York)

    Prof. Phil Edmondson is the UKAEA Chair in Tritium Science & Technology at the University of Manchester where he leads a group investigating various aspects of the tritium breeder blanket fuel cycle for fusion power devices. This includes the extraction of tritium from breeder materials such as FLiBe, detritiating solid materials for waste handling, and how hydrogen isotopes alters material properties. Prior to this, he was Group Leader of the Radiation Effects and Microstructural Analysis Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for over 10 years, using advanced microscopy techniques to understand materials’ evolution under neutron irradiation for fusion systems.

  • Fernanda Rimini, UKAEA

    Tokamak operational scenarios, the EUROfusion roadmap and how to commission a power plant (York)

    Arrived at JET in 1987 with a 1 year post-doc grant...and didn’t leave until 1999, including participation in the 1997 record DTE1 experiments. After a few years at CEA Cadarache, France, came back to JET in 2009 and started working for the UKAEA in JET Plasma Operations Group. Presently JET Senior Exploitation Manager for EUROfusion.My main role is participation in, and management of, scientific and technical research and engineering developments in the European Fusion programme. Main area of competence lies in plasma physics, real-time plasma control, scenario development and integrated machine commissioning. I have been one of the JET Expert Session Leaders with overall responsibility for safe tokamak operation close to the technical boundaries of the JET machine, and I have been part of the group of international experts tasked, in 2016/2017, to revise with IO the ITER Research Plan.Presently Head of Operations, Control and Tokamak Systems at UKAEA, looking at how we apply our expertise to Next Gen tokamaks and build the operators for future Fusion Power Plants.

  • Aneeqa Khan, University of Manchester

    Panel Chair

    Dr Aneeqa Khan is a Lecturer in Nuclear Materials. Having completed a PhD in materials for fusion applications, followed by working at the ITER Organization and Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, she is now based at the University of Manchester, where she also completed a research fellowship in nuclear fusion. She is Lead for Outreach, Media and Engagement for the Fusion Power Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) and Co-Lead of Fusion Power CDT activities at Manchester. She is also involved with the new Fusion Engineering CDT. She is the Lead Dalton Nuclear Institute Champion, sits on the Fusenet board of governors and is a Royce Nuclear Materials Steering Group member. She is a member of the Fusion Industry Taskforce, regularly contributes to high profile panels and interacts with media (including Al Jazeera, BBC, The Guardian) and policy makers on fusion and inclusion and diversity in STEM. She was invited to Nuclear in Parliament Week and to contribute to the Government Office for Science Foresight Project. Her research interests are on materials and engineering for nuclear fusion.

  • Mark Henderson, UKIFS

    Fusion Power Cycle, and Heating & Current Drive

    Mark Henderson completed his PhD at Auburn University associated with the design, construction and operation of the Compact Auburn Torsatron. From 1992 to 2008, Mark worked at CRPP (SPC) in Lausanne, Switzerland as part of the team designing, building and operating the microwave heating system on the TCV tokamak. This included the use of microwaves for controlling the seawtooth instability, non-induction plasma operation and control of internal transport barriers. In 2004 he imitated alternative design concepts for the ITER upper launcher and then for the whole system that aimed at a simplified design with improved functionality. In 2008, Mark joined the ITER Organisation as the head of the Electron Cyclotron Section leader until 2021 upon which he joined the STEP team as the group leader for the STEP HCD system.

  • Roddy Vann, University of York

    Fusion Energy: the conditions & approaches

    Roddy has been an academic at the University of York since 2005. He is Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Fusion Power: a collaboration across six UK universities and more than twenty non-academic partners currently training over a hundred PhD students in fusion science. Roddy is also Director of the Fusion Industry School, Skills Pillar Lead for the Fusion Industry Taskforce and, until recently, Chair of the Board of Governors of FuseNet (the European Fusion Education Network). His primary research focus is microwave physics for applications in tokamaks. He holds Part III in maths from Cambridge and PhD in physics from Warwick.

  • Adam Baker, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

    UK Fusion Landscape

    Adam is a civil servant with over 20 years experience in government in areas such as front-line delivery, employment programmes, social justice and for the last 10 years science policy and international research infrastructure. He sponsored the UK Atomic Energy Authority for most of that time, as well as developing the UK’s fusion strategy, international partnerships and policy areas such as fusion funding and regulation. He is currently head of fusion policy in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Prior to working in government Adam worked as post-doctoral research assistant at the University of East Anglia. He also holds an executive master’s degree in public policy from the LSE.

  • Amy Gandy Headshot

    Amy Gandy, University of Sheffield

    Materials Science for Fusion Industry

    Professor Amy Gandy is Head of Programme for Materials Science and Engineering at UKAEA, and visiting Academic at the University of Sheffield. She has over 20 years’ experience investigating radiation effects and defect formation in materials, including developing armour, structural and fuel materials for fusion power plants. She has previously held a Royal Academy of Engineering / Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow in Understanding Radiation Damage Mechanisms in Novel, Compositionally Complex Alloys, and was a member of EPSRC’s Fusion Advisory Board and the UKAEA Fusion Materials steering group.

  • Stephanie Diem, University of Wisconsin - Madison

    Magnetic Machines: Alternative Path for Fusion Energy

    Professor Steffi Diem is the Principal Investigator of the Pegasus-III Experiment, a spherical tokamak developing innovations in plasma initiation techniques to reduce the cost and complexity of future fusion energy systems and she specializes in microwave heating and current drive. She also leads an interdisciplinary team investigating the societal-environmental-economic impacts of commercial fusion energy. Diem was appointed as a 2024/2025 U.S. Science Envoy for the U.S. Department of State. She has a BS in Nuclear Engineering (UW) and a PhD in Plasma Physics (Princeton University). Prior to joining UW, she was a R&D Scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and was on long-term assignment at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility at General Atomics.