EU Excellence Funding for IPP Scientist:

The European Research Council (ERC) will fund the research on plasma turbulence, that Prof. Dr Frank Jenko from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching plans to conduct by using supercomputers, with 1.45 million Euro over a course of five years. Jenko is recipient of a "Starting Grant", by which the ERC funds young scientists with an excellent research record. To investigate plasma turbulences, the team around Frank Jenko will use supercomputers of the peta- to exascale class. For this, they need to develop new computer programmes and adjust these for the fastest computers that will be available over the course of the next few years. These will be able to process quintillions of arithmetic operations per second. With their capacity, the plasma turbulence is to be simulated in a numerical model – a task connecting plasma physics, astrophysics and applied mathematics. The formation of turbulences in their fuel – hydrogen plasma – is a central topic of research for the IPP fusion researchers in their efforts to develop a power plant based on the model of the sun, since the size of and hence the price of power generated by a future fusion power plant depend on these turbulences. In his capacity as a scientist working at an associate institute of the Helmholtz Association, Frank Jenko receives another 250,000 Euro from the funds out of which the Helmholtz Association provides additional support for successful applicants from their associated institutions.

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