Prof. Diem is the PI of the Pegasus-III Experiment, a fusion energy experiment studying innovations in startup techniques to reduce the cost and complexity of future fusion power plants. Prof. Diem’s research interests are in the area of experimental plasma physics for fusion energy development with an emphasis on the validation of numerical models with experimental data. Her research focuses on utilizing radio frequency (RF) waves to heat and drive current in magnetically confined plasmas, having led and contributed to experimental research on a variety of magnetic confinement devices including: Proto-MPEX (ORNL), the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) Experiment (UW-Madison), the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX), and MAST (CCFE, UK). Additionally, she has been involved in the development of modeling tools and simulations of edge localized mode (ELM) pellet pacing experiments on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility using M3D-C1. Prof. Diem’s current research is focused on electron Bernstein wave (EBW) heating and current drive experiments on the Pegasus-III Experiment at UW-Madison as well as collaborations, both domestically and internationally, on RF injection in magnetically confined fusion plasmas.
Prof. Diem received her PhD in Plasma Physics from Princeton University where she studied electron Bernstein wave emission and mode conversion physics on the National Spherical Tokamak Experiment at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Prior to joining UW-Madison, Prof. Diem was a Research and Development Scientist in the Fusion Energy Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and spent two years on long-term assigment at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility at General Atomics in San Diego, CA.