Fusion Reactor Design by MSE Alum Wins Distinguished Dissertation Award

An experimental fusion reactor—the product of a 4-year doctoral career of a Materials Science and Engineering student—received the Charles A. Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award, an accolade by the University of Maryland Graduate School that recognizes original work making significant contributions to a field.

Nick Schwartz Ph.D.’24, a recent alum of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, was recognized for his work towards a fusion reactor—a device designed to harness energy from the reaction that fuels some forms of plasma, like the Sun. His team built a 20-foot-long Centrifugal Mirror Fusion Experiment, which creates energy based on the centrifugal mirror approach, an upgrade to one of the simplest fusion concepts.

Fusion energy has been on the radar since the 1950s, as researchers have studied forms of renewable energy that work efficiently. It generates no greenhouse emissions, creates minimal radioactive waste, and runs on fuel extracted from seawater and lithium, both abundantly available on earth. There’s one small caveat: identifying materials that can contain plasma hotter than the center of the Sun.

Up to this point, the most advanced fusion reactor prototype, named “Tokamak,” contains the plasma in a complex, donut-shaped chamber that faces barriers related to turbulence, instability, and requires using powerful magnets. Schwartz’ work seeks to simplify reactor design using a different mechanism: a centrifugal mirror, which contains particles within a magnetic field by reflecting them back and forth, that are additionally rotated at speeds faster than sound. He chose a material named “hexagonal boron nitride,” which could allow researchers to build next-generation centrifugal mirrors to power electrical grids.

Schwartz has been studying fusion energy since he was a junior mechanical engineering major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was introduced to his then doctoral advisor, Assistant Professor Tim Koeth, from whom he accepted the opportunity to build a state-of-the-art apparatus and create a man-made star at UMD.

“I feel extraordinarily lucky and proud of the work that my team and I did. I feel fortunate to be recognized with this award for doing something that I really love and enjoy,” Schwartz said.

The recent alum, who recently won the UMD Three-Minute Thesis Competition while he completed his doctoral studies, is continuing his work on fusion energy at the MIT Plasma Science and Fusion Center, specifically working as a postdoctoral researcher with the High Energy Density Physics Group. His current research involves developing novel diagnostics that would allow engineers to better understand the byproducts of the fusion reaction. Koeth, his doctoral advisor, celebrates his former student’s dissertation award as well.

“Fusion’s success will absolutely come from the discipline of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), which is why Nick has dedicated his professional life to applying MSE towards the problem of plasma facing materials. I am extremely proud of him, as fusion not only requires scientific talent, but political as well, both of which he excels in!” said Koeth.

Published April 23, 2025