Farhat N. Beg

Farhat N. Beg is a Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering. He co-directs the Fusion Engineering Institute and serves as Senior Vice President of Fusion Power Associates. His research focuses on high-power laser-plasma interactions, Z-pinch dynamics, and compact X-ray/neutron sources for inertial confinement fusion. He leads the High Energy Density Physics (HEDP) group, which utilizes advanced simulation tools and collaborates with national laboratories.

• Ph.D. in Z-pinch plasmas from Imperial College London
• Over 20 years at UCSD since 2003
• Develops 0.5 petawatt laser applications in fusion research

Research interests include

• Ultrahigh power laser-matter interactions
• Exotic magnetic field generation (400M× Earth's field)
• Relativistic electron beam applications in fusion
• Multi-wire Z-pinch optimization

His work has been featured in Nature, Physics Today, and Journal of Applied Physics. Scientific awards include the Association of Commonwealth Universities Fellowship. The HEDP group, under his leadership, maintains access to advanced simulation codes and collaborates with institutions like Johns Hopkins University on extreme environment materials research.