Germany’s Max Planck Society and Columbia University in the United States have announced the Max Planck Columbia Center ‘Optimizing Symmetry in Fusion Plasmas’, a joint centre to accelerate fusion energy research. It starts work in 2027 and will have a total budget of US$13.3 million over five years.
The centre is led by Thomas Klinger of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and Carlos Paz-Soldan, who heads the Columbia Fusion Research Center. Its work is divided into six areas, including superconducting magnets, plasma stability and new reactor designs.
Early-career researchers can spend up to a year in Greifswald, Garching or New York, and the Columbia team will gain access to the German Wendelstein 7-X and ASDEX Upgrade facilities. Funding includes US$7.5 million from US sources and €5 million from the German institute, and several fusion companies take part as affiliates.
