people

Alex Tinguely

group leader, research scientist (he/him)

Alex received his PhD from MIT in 2019 and has been a research scientist at the PSFC since 2022. He has lead the en.pa group since 2025.

For more information, presentations, and publications, visit his personal webpage.

Enrico Panontin

Postdoctoral Associate (he/him)

Enrico received his PhD from the University of Milan-Bicocca in 2022, where he developed analysis methods to study energetic particles (ions and runaway electrons) from their gamma-ray signatures. During his postdoc, he has shifted his focus on the development of nuclear diagnostics, such as: the HXR monitor for the SPARC tokamak, activation foils and the MERGS gamma-ray spectrometer.

Rishabh Datta

Postdoctoral Associate (he/him)

Rishabh received his PhD from MIT in 2024, where he studied the effects of radiative emission on magnetic reconnection. He has been a postdoctoral associate at MIT since 2024. His present work investigates the coupling between magnetohydrodynamic instabilities and runaway electrons during tokamak disruptions.

For more information, presentations, and publications, visit his personal webpage.

Wenhao Wang

Postdoctoral Associate (he/him)

Wenhao received his Ph.D. from UC, Irvine in 2024, where he studied the turbulent transport in the scrape-off layer of a field-reversed configuration with an electrostatic equilibrium potential. His current research focuses on the alpha particle transport in the SPARC tokamak, under the influence of MHD activities, such as sawtooth oscillations.

For more information, presentations, and publications, visit his personal webpage.

Justin Kunimune

Postdoctoral Associate (he/him)

Justin received his Ph.D. from MIT in 2025, where he developed diagnostics and data analysis techniques for laser-driven inertial fusion experiments. In his current role, he is working on designing a gamma ray spectrometer for magnetic fusion devices.

For more information, publications, and maps, visit his blog.

John Ball

phd candidate (he/him)

John is a fifth year graduate student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering specializing in advanced nuclear diagnostics for magnetic confinement fusion experiments. John’s work focuses on the development of compact neutron spectrometers for the SPARC neutron camera, enabling reconstruction of the ion temperature profile.

Originally from Baltimore, MD, John graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2021 with a B.S. in Physics.

Shon Mackie

Shon is a fifth year PhD candidate in the physics department studying the kinetic physics of burning plasmas through the lens of neutron spectrometry. His work is centered on the development of a high resolution magnetic proton recoil neutron spectrometer for SPARC and its exploitation to study fast ion populations produced by ion cyclotron resonance heating and fusion product thermalization.

Hailing from sunny Southern California, Shon graduated with his B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020 where he studied physics with a minor in mathematics.

Abby Feyrer

PhD candidate (she/her)

Abby is a third year PhD student in Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT. She studies the damage caused by runaway electrons in tokamaks, with a specific focus on predicting what that damage may look like in the SPARC tokamak.

Abby graduated with a B.S in physics from the University of Michigan in 2023.

Leon Nichols

PhD Student (he/him)

Leon is a third year PhD student in Physics at MIT studying the MHD effects of energetic particles. His work focuses on studying Toroidal Alfven Eigenmodes (TAEs) in high-field tokamaks, with relevance to performance impacts in SPARC and simulation validation.

Leon graduated with a B.A. in Physics and minor in Art and Art History from Colgate University in 2023.

Emily Edwards

Technical Associate (she/her)

Emily received her M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from MIT in 2025 and now works as a Technical Associate in the en.pa and High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) groups. Her work focuses on evaluating diamond detector operation in fusion-relevant extreme environments.