From Humble Fusor Beginnings
Posted: Tue May 08, 2018 8:45 am
All,
I've been actively lurking over the last two years or so even while my job in the Navy has pushed my neutron runs to the back burner. At the current moment I'm sending this update from a WiFi puck outside of Nha Trang, Vietnam where USN Seabees and USMC Combat Engineers are deep in the throws of constructing a school for rural farmers on the true outskirts of what would be considered 2nd world at best. It is not often that members of this board (especially those on the youthful side of 30) credit their successes to humble beginnings and insight they gained from the wealth of knowledge, independent discourse, and successes and errors alike captured across 1000's of forum posts. To that end, I wanted to let everyone know that my hobby pursuit of a Fusor turned out to steer my decision making for "what I want to be when I grow up". I am formally pursuing a PhD in microwave, plasma and fusion engineering having been accepted - with full funding - to the University of Michigan's Nuclear Enigneering Doctoral Track. I have pending offers to work on a series Linear Transformer Driver MagLIF experiment as well as high-repetition rate laser-dense plasma x-ray/neutron generators. During in-person interviews almost every professor/future adviser asked about my interest in D-D neutron generators and my path to building my own... look no further than Fusor.net
I credit my more than dangerous understanding of nuclear physics, vacuum and radiation instrumentation to the multitude of active posters on this board. In the near term I'll need a good refresher on undergraduate electrodynamics/modern physics but fully expect to hit the ground running when I begin my first term of graduate school in the fall. Richard(s), Steven, Bruce, Dan, Carl, Andrew and Jack... (and many others) I couldn't have made it here without your help and guidance and look to share my progress on formal/industry research once I clear the rigors of plasma physics.
The fusor is currently in a multitude of pieces as I've consolidated the reactor due to limitations of my town home garage as well as a shift toward building a BoT system. As with many of our more seasoned neutron club members my setup is gravitating toward an 80/20 frame, modular pumping system and micro-controller interfaced controls. I'll be back stateside in June and expect to use most of my July to machine/fabricate the accelerator business end.
I've been actively lurking over the last two years or so even while my job in the Navy has pushed my neutron runs to the back burner. At the current moment I'm sending this update from a WiFi puck outside of Nha Trang, Vietnam where USN Seabees and USMC Combat Engineers are deep in the throws of constructing a school for rural farmers on the true outskirts of what would be considered 2nd world at best. It is not often that members of this board (especially those on the youthful side of 30) credit their successes to humble beginnings and insight they gained from the wealth of knowledge, independent discourse, and successes and errors alike captured across 1000's of forum posts. To that end, I wanted to let everyone know that my hobby pursuit of a Fusor turned out to steer my decision making for "what I want to be when I grow up". I am formally pursuing a PhD in microwave, plasma and fusion engineering having been accepted - with full funding - to the University of Michigan's Nuclear Enigneering Doctoral Track. I have pending offers to work on a series Linear Transformer Driver MagLIF experiment as well as high-repetition rate laser-dense plasma x-ray/neutron generators. During in-person interviews almost every professor/future adviser asked about my interest in D-D neutron generators and my path to building my own... look no further than Fusor.net
I credit my more than dangerous understanding of nuclear physics, vacuum and radiation instrumentation to the multitude of active posters on this board. In the near term I'll need a good refresher on undergraduate electrodynamics/modern physics but fully expect to hit the ground running when I begin my first term of graduate school in the fall. Richard(s), Steven, Bruce, Dan, Carl, Andrew and Jack... (and many others) I couldn't have made it here without your help and guidance and look to share my progress on formal/industry research once I clear the rigors of plasma physics.
The fusor is currently in a multitude of pieces as I've consolidated the reactor due to limitations of my town home garage as well as a shift toward building a BoT system. As with many of our more seasoned neutron club members my setup is gravitating toward an 80/20 frame, modular pumping system and micro-controller interfaced controls. I'll be back stateside in June and expect to use most of my July to machine/fabricate the accelerator business end.