Program in Plasma Physics
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This memorandum offers some informal answers to questions concerning graduate study in plasma physics at Princeton University, and is intended to tell you about Princeton and about the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Q. I am interested in plasma physics. To which department should I apply? A. The Plasma Physics Program at Princeton is in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences. It is this Department with which the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, located at the nearby Forrestal Campus, is associated, and a student whose primary academic interest is in plasma physics should apply to this Department. However, students in other departments may take courses in Astrophysical Sciences just as plasma physics students augment their curriculum with courses outside their own department. Especially close ties are maintained with the Department of Physics. The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering offers plasma physics with specific orientation toward lasers and electric propulsion. Q. What will I study in the plasma physics program? A. As the name implies, this program has a strong physics orientation. First-year graduate students will typically take graduate courses given by the Department of Physics in quantum mechanics, electricity and magnetism, and in statistical mechanics, together with the introductory plasma physics course (AST551 and 552). AST558 is a seminar which meets one afternoon a week to discuss a wide variety of topics of current interest. Second-year students typically take the intermediate-level plasma courses (AST553, AST554 and AST555), a mathematics course (AST557), a laboratory course (AST562), and such other courses as they wish to select. Q. Should I specialize in this one field so early in my career? A. As indicated, the academic work is, in fact, not specialized but rather it is broadly based in modern physics. The study of plasma physics requires the folding together of knowledge from electricity and magnetism, atomic physics, hydrodynamics, statistical mechanics and kinetic theory, and applied mathematics. Techniques from many disciplines within theoretical and experimental physics find immediate application in plasma research and, by the same token, experience with plasmas can be transferred back to other areas in physics. But equally important — plasma physics is itself a large field, a young field, and a challenging field where success in our research will have enormous impact on, among other things, reaching a satisfactory long-term solution of the world's energy problems. Q. What is the deadline for applications? A. December 31 for domestic applications and December 1 for international applications for admission the following September. Q. Does Princeton offer regular admission to graduate students for studies starting in the spring term? A. No. Q. The deadline for admission has passed. Can I still apply? A. Under exceptional circumstances — depending both on the number of students already enrolled and upon the special merits of the applicant — admission may be offered to a late applicant. Q. How many students are currently enrolled? A. We average 35 to 40 students with a first-year class of 5 to 7. Q. How many applications do you receive? A. We consider approximately 50 to 60 applications each year. Q. How do I apply? A. All applications must be made online using Princeton University's Graduate School online application process (https://apply.embark.com/Grad/Princeton/28/). For additional information, check out the Guide to Graduate Admission. Q. My undergraduate degree will be in engineering; should I apply to your program? A. If your undergraduate curriculum included a reasonable number of courses in physics and mathematics, and if our program supplies the graduate training you want, yes. Q. Should I take the Graduate Record Examination before applying? A. Candidates are required to take the GRE's for admission, including the advanced section in Physics. Q. Is financial support available? A. We have been able to offer assistantships to each of our plasma students for research carried out at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The assistantships are for half-time work (20 hours per week) during the ten academic months of the year and cover tuition plus a stipend. Full-time assistantships are offered for the two summer months. Q. What type of work will I do for my assistantship? A. Participation in current research is considered an integral part of the academic program. The assistantships are sponsored by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), and the work is carried out there. In your first year, you will join one of PPPL's experimental physics groups and participate, from the very beginning, in research which is at the forefront of knowledge in plasma physics. In the second year, you will do similar research, but with a member of the theoretical staff. Q. Is the expectation that I participate in a research project altered if I have outside Fellowship support? A. No. We believe that this participation is a valuable experience that should be shared by all of our students. Q. Will I be assigned to a research advisor for this work? A. No. When you arrive, we will give you a list of possible research opportunities. You will be able to talk to each prospective advisor, and the final choice will be made mutually by you and your advisor. Q. You have offered me admission in September. Can I come to start my assistantship research this summer? A. Yes. We encourage incoming students to come early, so that they may learn something about PPPL and about plasma research before classes start. Q. How long will it take to receive my Ph.D.? A. Typically, the first two years consist mainly of academic work plus assistantship research. After passing Generals (usually at the end of the second year), thesis research begins, with most thesis projects taking about three years. Q. I am a graduate student at another institution. Can I transfer to your program? A. Transfer of schools could introduce a delay in receiving your Ph.D. You will still be required to take, after at least one year of residence at Princeton, the General Examinations in our Department. After that, your thesis will probably take at least another two years. Q. What is the language requirement in your department? A. Examination of reading ability in a foreign language is no longer required of doctoral students in the plasma physics program. On the other hand, the advancement of knowledge in plasma physics is very much an international activity with frequent international meetings and extended exchange visits. Students are encouraged to acquire and develop language skills and, toward this end. Language laboratory facilities and instruction are available at the University. Q. Do you offer a Master's Degree program? A. No. A Master of Arts degree can be awarded as an incidental degree upon passing the General Examination. Q. My primary interest is in fusion technology. Should I apply to your department? A. The academic program in the Department is very much physics oriented. A student strongly interested in both the physics and the technology of plasmas could supplement his plasma curriculum with engineering courses from other departments at Princeton. In addition, the construction of the new large machines at PPPL involves much state-of-the-art engineering, and could be a fertile field for doctoral research. However, a student whose primary interest is in fusion-reactor research technology might well consider the program, dedicated to this topic, currently at Princeton in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Q. What will be the job market in plasma physics when I graduate? A. The job market in physics overall has been difficult in recent years. The funding for fusion research, particularly for large projects, has been reduced, although several very large projects are now underway in Europe and Asia. Even in this climate, however, our present graduate students are being offered postdoctoral positions in plasma physics and students several years out are securing teaching positions. Broad well-trained young scientists seem always to be in demand. For the first time, we are seeing several students taking their expertise in computational physics to the financial sector, but those who wish to continue in physics are apparently able to do so. Q. How does the pursuit of large projects at PPPL affect the education program at Princeton? A. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory can pursue projects larger than those that can be pursued at most universities. Princeton's largest tokamak, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR), was decommissioned in 1997. This tokamak, which cost several hundred million dollars to build and operate, was the centerpiece of the nation's fusion effort for most of the 1980s and 90s. Since TFTR's shutdown, the Lab has refocused to pursue a wider spectrum of research in plasma physics using several smaller devices. The newest device to be built at the Lab is the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), a spherical torus. The National Compact Stellarator Experiment (NCSX), a compact stellarator, is presently under construction at the Lab. Although students are involved in both large and small projects, student involvement in the smaller projects has tended to be much larger than on the largest projects. Visit the student research page for examples of recent and on-going student research. For Additional Information, follow the link, or contact:
Professor Nathaniel J. Fisch, Director |