Nathaniel Ferraro: Curriculum Vitae

For more information, please refer to my ORCID profile.

Education

• PhD, Princeton University, Program in Plasma Physics (2008)
• MS, Dartmouth College, Physics and Astronomy (2003)
• BA, Dartmouth College, Physics, Mathematics (2002)

Appointments

• Deputy Head, Theory Department, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (2022–present)
• Research Scientist, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (2015–present)
• Scientist, General Atomics (2011–2015)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, General Atomics (2008–2011)

Awards

• Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), White House (2025)
• Fellow, Oppenheimer Science and Energy Leadership Program, US Department of Energy (2025)
• FES Early Career Award, US Department of Energy (2018)
• FES Postdoctoral Fellowship, US Department of Energy (2008)
• Lawrence Fellowship (declined), Lawrence Livermore National Lab (2008)
• Charlotte E. Procter Fellowship, Princeton University (2006)
• Physics and Astronomy Chair's Prize, Dartmouth College (2002)

Fusion Community Activities

• Chair, Fusion Theory, Engineering, AI, Modeling, and Simulation (TEAMS) Workshop (2025)
• Theory Coordinating Committee Executive Committee: Member (2024–present), Vice-chair (2025–present)
• Leader, MHD and Macroscopic Plasma Physics Topical Area, US Burning Plasma Organization (2022–present)
• Co-chair, APS-DPP Community Planning Process (2018–2020)
• Member, APS-DPP Committee on Women in Plasma Physics (2017–2019)
• Treasurer, Executive Committee, Sherwood International Fusion Theory Conference (2015–2022)

Invited Presentations

1. "Plans for Simulation and Validation in the US Tokamak Research Program." EUROfusion Theory and Simulation Coordination (E-TASC) meeting. Garching, Germany (2026)
2. "Extended-MHD Stellarator Modeling with M3D-C1." European Fusion Theory Conference. Aix-en-Provence, France (2025)
3. "Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Fusion Plasmas with M3D-C1." 11th International Conference on Computational Physics. Hangzhou, China (2019)
4. "Simulations of Fast Thermal Quenches Using a Two-Temperature Model." Sherwood Fusion Theory Conference. Princeton, NJ (2019)
5. "Free-Boundary 3D equilibria and Resistive Wall Instabilities with Extended-MHD." 57th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics. Savannah, GA (2015).
6. "Calculation of Linear Two-Fluid Plasma Response to Applied Non-Axisymmetric Fields." 53rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics. Salt Lake City, UT (2011).
7. "Fluid Modeling of Fusion Plasmas with M3D-C1." SciDAC Conference. Denver, CO (2011).
8. "Ideal and Non-Ideal Tokamak Edge Stability Calculations." Sherwood International Fusion Theory Conference. Seattle, WA (2010).

Selected Publications

1. A Kleiner, NM Ferraro, R Sweeney, BC Lyons, M Reinke. "Extended-MHD simulations of disruption mitigation via massive gas injection in SPARC." Nuclear Fusion 65:026015 (2025)
2. Y Zhou, K Aleynikova, C Liu, NM Ferraro. "Benign saturation of ideal ballooning instability in a high-performance stellarator." Phys. Rev. Lett. 133:135102 (2024)
3. SC Jardin, NM Ferraro, W Guttenfelder, SM Kaye, S Munaretto. "Ideal MHD limited electron temperature in spherical tokamaks." Phys. Rev. Lett. 128:245001 (2022)
4. Y Zhou, NM Ferraro, SC Jardin, HR Strauss. "Approach to nonlinear magnetohydrodynamic simulations in stellarator geometry." Nucl. Fusion 61:086015 (2021)
5. NM Ferraro, J-K Park, CE Myers, A Brooks, SP Gerhardt, JE Menard, S Munaretto, and ML Reinke. "Error field impact on mode locking and divertor heat flux in NSTX-U." Nucl. Fusion 59:086021 (2019)
6. NM Ferraro, BC Lyons, CC Kim, YQ Liu, and SC Jardin. "3D two-temperature magnetohydrodynamic modeling of fast thermal quenches due to injected impurities in tokamaks." Nucl. Fusion 59:016001 (2019)
7. NM Ferraro, SC Jardin, LL Lao, MS Shephard, F Zhang. "Multi-region approach to free-boundary three-dimensional tokamak equilibria and resistive wall instabilites." Phys. Plasmas 23:056114 (2016)
8. NM Ferraro, TE Evans, LL Lao, RA Moyer, R Nazikian, DM Orlov, MW Shafer, EA Unterberg, MR Wade, A Wingen. "Role of plasma response in displacements of the tokamak edge due to applied non-axisymmetric fields." Nucl. Fusion 7:073042 (2013)
9. NM Ferraro. "Calculations of two-fluid linear response to non-axisymmetric fields in tokamaks." Phys. Plasmas 19:056105 (2012)
10. NM Ferraro. "Symmetries of resistive two-fluid magnetohydrodynamics under reversals of toroidal field, current, and rotation." Phys. Plasmas 19:014505 (2012)
11. NM Ferraro, SC Jardin, PB Snyder. "Ideal and resistive edge stability calculations with M3D-C1." Phys. Plasmas 17:102508 (2010)
12. NM Ferraro, SC Jardin. "Calculations of two-fluid magnetohydrodynamic axisymmetric steady-states." J. Comp. Phys. 228:7742 (2009)
13. NM Ferraro. "Non-ideal effects on the stability and transport of magnetized plasmas." PhD Thesis, Princeton University (2008)
14. NM Ferraro. "Finite Larmor radius effects on the magnetorotational instability." Astrophys. J. 662:512 (2007)
15. NM Ferraro, SC Jardin. "Finite element implementation of Braginskii's gyroviscous stress with application to the gravitational instability." Phys. Plasmas 13:092101 (2006)
16. NM Ferraro, BN Rogers. "Turbulence in low-beta reconnection." Phys. Plasmas 11:4382 (2004)