Dr Edward Moses, principle associate director of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in the USA, will address attendees of the Perimeter Institute's Public Lecture Series, which will be held at the Waterloo Collegiate Institute in Canada on 5 February. Dr Moses' talk, entitled: ‘The National Ignition Facility: Pathway to Energy Security and the Physics of the Cosmos’, will discuss the experimental capabilities of the NIF, including the pathway to achieving fusion ignition to create a clean and secure energy future.
The NIF is the world’s most energetic laser system, capable of producing over 1.8MJ and 500TW of ultraviolet light - 100 times more than existing operating lasers.
By concentrating intense laser energy into targets only millimetres in length, the NIF can now produce conditions imitating those found in planetary interiors and stellar environments. The extreme conditions of energy density, pressure, and temperature will enable scientists to pursue science experiments designed to address a range of scientific questions, from observing new states of matter to exploring the origin of ultra high-energy cosmic rays.
At the NIF, Moses was responsible for the development of laser technologies related to security, economic competitiveness, and laser fusion energy. He is now leading the effort to explore ways to commercialise Laser Ignition Fusion Energy (LIFE).
The Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics is a scientific research organisation working to advance understanding of physical laws and develop new ideas about the essence of space, time, matter, and information. The Public Lecture Series brings great thinkers from around the world to Canada to share their ideas on a wide variety of topical subjects.
