Michel Osca Engelbrecht

University Of York

Since graduating in 2016 in Aerospace Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Spain), I started developing my career in the area of plasma physics. As part of my bachelor final project I explored magnetized targets for inertial confinement fusion, which led me to work as a research collaborator at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Afterwards, I worked as an intern at Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching (Germany).

These experiences encouraged me to undertake the MSc in Fusion Energies at University of York. During my Masters I have been involved in a research project that studies ultra-relativistic high-intensity laser-plasma interactions, part of which is included in my Masters Dissertation.

My PhD subject is “Cross-field Transport in Magnetized Plasmas”. I use kinetic simulations to investigate high frequency modes and turbulence in plasmas containing strong magnetic fields and the consequences for magnetic confinement fusion. I am based primarily at the University of York, but work in collaboration with experimental groups at Imperial College London and the University of Liverpool to explore the relevance of my simulations to plasma thrusters and magnetron sputtering devices.