Nuno Loureiro, a Técnico alumnus and former researcher at the Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion (IPFN), has been appointed the new director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), one of the largest MIT’s labs: more than 250 full-time researchers, staff members, and students work and study in the seven buildings of the PSFC.

Nuno Loureiro got into Técnico for an Engineering Physics undergraduate programme in 1995, because it was “the best university in the country for Physics”. In his opinion, despite being “difficult”, the academic programme “was very demanding and prepared the students very well”.

Later, in 2009, he became a researcher at IPFN. “IPFN has many internationally-recognised researchers, so it was a good place for me to grow up”, he says. “I’m not an expert in all the things we do here [at PSFC], but the cross-cutting skills I acquired and my research work at Técnico was a ‘launch pad’ at MIT”, he adds.

Nuno Loureiro’s research focuses mainly on plasma behaviour, particularly turbulence and the physics underpinning solar flares and other astronomical phenomena. His work also enables the design of fusion devices that can more efficiently control this process. “The next few years are certain to be an exciting time for fusion”, says the Técnico alumnus in statements to MIT. “It’s the dawn of a new era with burning plasma experiments”, he adds.

Advances in nuclear fusion could offer new solutions to climate change, offering the possibility of producing large amounts of energy with reduced environmental impacts. “Fusion is a hard problem, but it can be solved with resolve and ingenuity”, argues Nuno Loureiro, adding that “fusion energy will change the course of human history”.