Justin Ball

Dr. Justin Ball is a Staff Scientist at the Swiss Plasma Center (SPC-TH) within the School of Basic Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). His office is located in Building PPB, Room 117, Station 13, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. He serves as the Principal Investigator for the EUROfusion Theory, Simulation, Verification, and Validation project focused on negative triangularity.

Dr. Ball received his Bachelor's degree in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan and his Master's degree in Nuclear Engineering from MIT. At MIT, he was a leading designer of the original ARC reactor, which later became the foundation for Commonwealth Fusion Systems. He completed his PhD in Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford in 2016, where he received the European Physical Society Plasma Physics PhD Research Award.

His research primarily focuses on theoretical plasma physics and nuclear fusion energy, with special emphasis on the effect of plasma shaping on turbulence in tokamaks. Dr. Ball has made significant contributions to understanding negative triangularity plasmas, gyrokinetic simulations, and plasma transport phenomena. His work bridges fundamental plasma physics with practical fusion energy applications, contributing to the development of more efficient fusion reactor designs.

Analysis of his 15 most recent publications (2019-2024) reveals a strong focus on negative triangularity effects in tokamaks, gyrokinetic modeling of plasma turbulence, and optimization of plasma confinement. His research increasingly incorporates experimental validation with TCV tokamak data while advancing theoretical understanding of plasma transport mechanisms.

• European Physical Society Plasma Physics PhD Research Award

Dr. Ball actively supervises PhD students including Anuaruly Oraz, Balestri Alessandro, and Sun Haomin, with past student Volcokas Arnas. His research is supported by EUROfusion funding and contributes to major fusion energy initiatives. He has also secured significant research funding through his involvement with projects that have attracted substantial investment, including the Commonwealth Fusion Systems initiative which has raised $2 billion.

As part of the Swiss Plasma Center at EPFL, Dr. Ball collaborates with a multidisciplinary team working on various aspects of fusion energy research. His work connects with experimental groups operating the TCV tokamak and contributes to the broader European fusion research community through EUROfusion. He is also an active science communicator, having co-authored the popular science book 'The Future of Fusion Energy' with Jason Parisi in 2019.