Bio: David is a third year PhD student in plasma physics. He received his bachelor's degree in 2020 from the University of Washington in aeronautical and astronautical engineering, where he performed research on the sheared flow z-pinch experiment in the ZaP lab and the Computational Plasma Dynamics Lab.
Advisor: Mike Mauel
Research focus: David works with Chris Hansen on tokamak edge physics simulations including adding resistive wall functionality to the NIMROD code with applications in analyzing scrape-off layer currents, resistive wall modes and runaway electron mitigation coils on HBT and other devices. He also uses a combination of NIMROD and the Psi-Tri equilibrium solver to improve the diagnosis of core equilibria and internal MHD activity in HBT by combining synthetic and experimental data from magnetic and EUV sensors.