Burning Plasma Physicist

Proxima Fusion is Europe’s fastest-growing fusion company and the continent’s best-funded fusion player, as well as the first spin-out from the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP). As a Burning Plasma Physicist at Proxima, you will lead efforts to understand, model, and optimize energetic particle behavior in reactor-scale stellarator plasmas. Your work will focus on fast-ion confinement, energetic particle transport, and bulk plasma interactions mediated through Alfvénic activity. You will develop and apply advanced numerical tools to assess alpha particle confinement, characterize instability-driven transport, and guide stellarator optimization toward robust burning plasma operation.

Responsibilities

Lead the development, validation, and application of advanced energetic particle transport workflows for assessing burning plasma physics in reactor-scale stellarator plasmas; Investigate energetic particle driven instabilities, including Alfvén eigenmodes and related EP–MHD interactions, and assess their impact on plasma performance; Ensure alpha particle confinement remains within the tolerable limits of plasma facing components under reactor-relevant operational scenarios; Work closely with stellarator optimization teams to incorporate energetic particle physics constraints into magnetic configuration design; Develop reduced-order models and analysis workflows to accelerate reactor design studies and scenario optimization.

Requirements

Hold a postgraduate degree in plasma physics, or a related discipline; Have strong expertise in energetic particle transport, burning plasma physics, or kinetic plasma instabilities; Bring experience studying EP–MHD interactions, including Alfvén eigenmodes, fast-ion driven instabilities, or related wave-particle interaction physics; Have experience using advanced simulation tools for kinetic, orbit-following, gyrokinetic, or hybrid MHD modeling; Be proficient in scientific programming languages such as Python, Julia, C++, and/or Fortran; Be comfortable working across disciplines, collaborating closely with physicists and engineers to solve open-ended reactor design challenges; Take initiative, communicate clearly, and be motivated by solving open-ended physics challenges critical to commercial fusion energy.

Benefits

Own critical aspects of burning plasma physics that govern the viability and performance of steady-state fusion reactors; Develop and apply state-of-the-art kinetic and hybrid simulation tools to assess plasma and reactor performance; Translate your results directly into stellarator design decisions with reactor-scale consequences; Contribute to the European initiative leading the critical path to a fusion power plant; Collaborate closely with theorists, computational physicists, and engineering teams in a highly interdisciplinary environment focused on building real fusion devices.