Anne White

Anne White is the School of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Engineering at MIT and the Associate Vice President for Research Administration. She leads research in magnetic fusion energy, focusing on plasma turbulence, transport physics, and diagnostic development. Her work aims to validate models for fusion reactor design, particularly in high-field tokamaks like Alcator C-Mod.

Education: Received a PhD in Physics from UCLA, followed by postdoctoral research at PPPL and General Atomics before joining MIT in 2009.

Research Interests: Development of advanced diagnostics for plasma temperature and density fluctuations, turbulence suppression mechanisms, and multi-scale transport modeling. Collaborates globally on projects like ITER and the federal Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC).

Scientific Awards: Includes the APS Plasma Physics Fellowship, Cecil and Ida Green Professorship, and DOE Early Career Award. Recognized for contributions to fusion engineering and teaching excellence.

Advising & Grants: Advises graduate and undergraduate students in nuclear science and engineering. Leads projects funded by DOE, including the SPARC/ARC reactor design. Active in MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center and Climate Nucleus initiatives.

Labs/Teams: Principal investigator at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, part of the Alcator C-Mod team, and collaborator on ASDEX Upgrade and NSTX-U experiments.