Stephan Brunner

Stephan Brunner is a Maître d'enseignement et de recherche (Senior Lecturer) at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), affiliated with the School of Basic Sciences (SB), the Center for Plasma Physics Research – Theory (SPC-TH), and education units EDPY-ENS and SPH-ENS. He is based at the PPB 312 building on EPFL's Lausanne campus and is actively involved in teaching and research in plasma physics and fusion energy.

His research interests focus on plasma physics, particularly gyrokinetic simulations of turbulence in magnetic confinement fusion devices. He investigates microinstabilities such as ion temperature gradient (ITG) modes and trapped electron modes (TEM), zonal flows, wave-particle interactions, and non-adiabatic electron dynamics. His work bridges theory, simulation, and experiment, often using synthetic diagnostics to validate models against data from tokamaks like TCV and JT-60SA.

The most recent articles highlight a strong trend in advanced computational modeling and diagnostic validation. His publications emphasize the development and verification of gyrokinetic codes (e.g., ORB5, PICLS), the analysis of turbulence in realistic plasma geometries, and the integration of experimental measurements with simulation outputs. Key themes include flux-tube and global simulations, collisional effects, magnetic shear, and the role of zonal flows in transport regulation.

Stephan Brunner has advised numerous PhD students, including Emmanuel Lanti, Xavier Lapillonne, and Julien Dominski, and has contributed to major collaborative projects in fusion research. He has not received any explicitly mentioned scientific awards in the provided text.

He leads or contributes to research on plasma turbulence, computational methods, and fusion energy science, working within teams at EPFL’s CRPP and collaborating with international fusion facilities. His work is foundational to improving predictive capabilities for next-generation fusion reactors.