Celebrating Dr. Mingyun Cao!

We're excited to share that Mingyun Cao — a FAPPG Ph.D. student advised by Prof. Pat Diamond — successfully defended his thesis titled "Adding New Ingredients to the Recipe of Plasma Soup: Stochasticity, Toroidicity, and Nonlocality" on June 19.

A copy of Mingyun's dissertation is our website and through UC San Diego Library.

Many congratulations, Mingyun! We wish you all the best in your scientific career and look forward to future collaborations with you.

A Research Milestone: 600 Journal Articles

The May publication of a Nuclear Fusion paper marks a publishing milestone for Professor Pat Diamond — 600 research articles authored and co-authored in peer-reviewed scientific journals. This large body of work, which began in the early 1980s, includes findings from close-knit studies with UC San Diego graduate students, international and multi-institutional projects, and review articles on key topics in fusion and plasma physics.

Congratulations, Pat, on this incredible research and scientific writing accomplishment!

Mingyun's Newest Paper Recognized as a PRL Editor's Suggestion

PhD student Mingyun Cao was recently honored with UC San Diego's 2025 Lu Jeu Sham Outstanding Physics Paper Award, for his article "Physics of edge-core coupling by inward turbulence propagation."

The paper has now been published online in Physical Review Letters. This article was selected as an Editor’s Suggestion, which according to the PRL editors, recognizes a paper "judged to be particularly important, interesting, and well written.

Congratulations to Mingyun and his research advisor Prof. Diamond on their new publication!

Mingyun Honored With Sham Outstanding Paper Award

Congratulations to FAPPG Ph.D. student Mingyun Cao, who was named the winner of the 2025 Lu Jeu Sham Outstanding Physics Paper Award.

Mingyun was nominated for an accepted article in Physics Review Letters "Physics of edge-core coupling by inward turbulence propagation." The Sham Award recognizes graduate students who make outstanding research contributions to papers published (or accepted) in a peer-reviewed journal. Recipients are recognized for carrying forward a tradition of excellence in physics research at UC San Diego, in honor of Dr. Sham's significant contributions to physics.

Mingyun's paper weaves together ideas from turbulence theory, plasma physics and tokamak phenomenology, and offers a novel solution to a longstanding transport problem in magnetic confinement physics. It was also selected as an Editor’s Suggestion by PRL, which according to the editors, is a paper "judged to be particularly important, interesting, and well written.

Congratulations on this honor, Mingyun!

Launch Party: Celebrate the "Stellar Beginnings" of A&A

Join faculty and staff on Friday, May 2, to celebrate the official launch of the UC San Diego Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics! See the event flyer for more information and to register to attend either in-person or virtually. We look forward to celebrating this momentous new chapter with you.

News Flash: UC San Diego Fusion Energy Research Makes Headlines

Read about UC San Diego's research partnerships with General Atomics in these articles by KPBS and UC San Diego Today. Congratulations to Professors Garay and Beg, and our GA DIII-D collaborators on these science communication efforts!

IAEA synopses and presentations now available

FAPPG PI Prof. Patrick Diamond and Project Scientist Rameswar Singh have just returned from the 129th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference in London. Visit our Research and Publications pages to view their presentations and detailed synopses. Congratulations, Pat and Rameswar!