Culham Plasma Physics Summer School

Overview

The Culham Plasma Physics Summer School is a two-week introductory programme at UKAEA’s Culham Campus.  It covers fundamental plasma physics and its applications, including fusion, astrophysics and low-temperature plasmas.

The Culham Plasma Physics Summer School features:

• an introduction to the basic principles of plasma physics through lectures by experts and problem-solving sessions
• sessions on fusion plasmas, solar, space and astrophysical plasmas, laser plasmas, industrial applications, and data analysis
• tours of fusion facilities like the Joint European Torus (JET) and the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) Upgrade
• social events
• opportunities for networking and detailed discussions with course lecturers

The course director is Dr Michael Fitzgerald and the co-ordinator is Andrew Wise. Lecturers are from the UKAEA, the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) together with leading European universities – all renowned experts in their fields.

Who can attend?

The Culham Plasma Physics Summer School is aimed at Masters and early-career PhD students. Students must be over 18 and generally will be in their final year of undergraduate or first year of post graduate study. We assume no previous knowledge of the subject, but familiarity with electromagnetism and applied mathematics at first degree level will be helpful.

Location

The summer school is at Culham Campus, near Abingdon in Oxfordshire. Culham was set up in 1960 to provide a centre for research in plasma physics and nuclear fusion, with teams from Harwell and Aldermaston brought together under the leadership of Sir John Adams.

During this time, Culham quickly gained an international reputation for excellence, and fusion scientists from all over the world continue to work at Culham on many collaborative programmes. The design team for the Joint European Torus (JET) was sited at Culham in 1974. In 1977 it was decided that Culham would host the project, which is the world’s leading fusion experiment.

Culham is also the home of MAST Upgrade, one of the world’s largest projects researching the innovative spherical tokamak concept.

63rd Culham Plasma Physics Summer School – July 2026

We are working hard to bring you the full details of the 63rd Culham Plasma Physics Summer School from 13 July to 23 July 2026.

Timetable

We are working on finalising the timetable for the 63rd Culham Plasma Physics Summer School. Here is the timetable for the 62nd Culham Plasma Physics Summer School in 2025 as an example.

The 62nd Culham Plasma Physics Summer School 2025

Lecturer	Session	Lecturer organisation
Dr Michael Fitzgerald	Introduction	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Sir Ian Chapman	Welcome	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Mikhail Gryaznevich	History of Fusion	Tokamak Energy
Dr Michael Fitzgerald	Single Particle Motion	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Ben McMillan	Plasma Kinetic Theory	The University of Warwick
Prof. Erik Wagenaars	Low Temperature Plasmas	University of York
Dr Anantanarayanan “Chippy” Thyagaraja	Classical Transport	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Daniele Brunetti	MHD I	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Daniele Brunetti	MHD II	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Morten Lennholm	Tokamaks 101: What is a tokamak?	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Ivan Konoplev	Waves in cold plasma	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Michael Hardman	Neoclassical Transport	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Ivor Coffey	Diagnostics	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Prof. Tünde Fülöp	Runaway electrons	Chalmers University of Technology
Dr Jakob Svensson	Connecting Theory with Experiment	Seed eScience Research
Dr Colin Roach	Landau Damping	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Colin Roach	Plasma Turbulence	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Ken McClements	Plasma Instabilities	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Fernanda Rimini	Tokamaks 201: How to Drive a Tokamak	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Philippe Jacquet	Heating and Current Drive	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Mr Joe Deane	Introduction to JET	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Kate Lancaster	Inertial Confinement Fusion	University of York
Prof. Bob Bingham	Astrophysical Plasma Physics and Particle Acceleration in Plasmas	STFC (RAL), University of Strathclyde, University of St Andrews
Dr Stuart Mangles	Laser Wakefield Acceleration	Imperial College London
Dr Anantanarayanan “Chippy” Thyagaraja	Plasma Transport	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr William Morris	Tokamaks 301: Future tokamaks	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Fulvio Militello	Plasma Wall Interaction	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr James Harrison	Introduction to MAST Upgrade	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Dr Fulvio Militello	Tokamak Edge Physics	UK Atomic Energy Authority
Prof.Dr Stefaan  Poedts	Space Weather	KU LEUVEN
Dr Sui Ann Mao	Cosmic Magnetic Fields	Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
Dr Michael Fitzgerald	Burning Plasma Physics	UK Atomic Energy Authority

Contact us

If you have any questions about the next Culham Plasma Physics Summer School, contact us.