Mervi Mantsinen

Mervi Mantsinen

Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación

Engineering Sciences

I graduated in Technical Physics at Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), now Aalto University, Finland in 1992. I carried out my research in the Plasma Physics and Fusion Group of HUT until 1995 when I moved to the JET Joint European Torus, the largest tokamak in the world, located in the UK. At JET, I worked as Ion Cyclotron Resonance Frequency (ICRF) Physics Expert, Scientific Coordinator, Responsible Officer for several large modelling codes and Physicist in Charge as well as trained as Session Leader of JET experiments. My thesis for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology at HUT in 1999 was based on my research at JET. In 2003 I became Deputy Leader of Task Force Heating and Current Drive at JET, with approx. 80 members at several research institutions across Europe. In 2006 I joined the ICRF group of the Asdex Upgrade tokamak, Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics, Germany and in October 2013 I was appointed ICREA Research Professor at BSC.

Research interests

My research is directed towards contributing to the development of nuclear fusion as a source of energy and, in particular, to the ITER project. ITER is an international nuclear fusion R&D project, which is building the world's largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor in France. ITER aims to demonstrate that fusion energy is scientifically and technologically feasible. My research is focused in the numerical modelling of experiments in magnetically confined fusion devices in preparation for ITER operation, working towards the objectives of the European fusion research programme EUROfusion for Horizon Europe in close collaboration with ITER, International Tokamak Physics Activity, EUROfusion and the Spanish national fusion laboratory CIEMAT. My overall objective is to enhance the modelling capabilities by code validation and optimization, with the ultimate goal of helping improve the performance of ITER and future fusion reactors.

Selected publications

- E Goldberg et al. 2022, 'Validating NEUTRO, a deterministic finite element neutron transport solver for fusion applications, with literature tests, experimental benchmarks and other neutronic codes', Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion, 64, 104006.  

- Gallart D, Mantsinen MJ et al. 2022, 'Prediction of ICRF minority heating schemes for JET D–T experiments', Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 64 125006

- Solano ER et al. 2022, 'Recent progress in L–H transition studies at JET: tritium, helium, hydrogen and deuterium', Nucl. Fusion, 62, 076026.

- Taylor DMA, Mantsinen MJ, Gallart D, Manyer J & Siren P 2022, 'Effect of inclusion of pitch-angle dependence on a simplified model of RF deposition in tokamak plasma', Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion, 64, 5, 055015.

- Lorenzo J & Mantsinen M 2022, 'Homogenization of Winding Pack Properties for the Structural Analysis of Fusion Magnets', IEEE Transactions On Applied Superconductivity, 32, 6, 4901006.

- Mulas S et al. 2022, 'ASCOT5 simulations of neutral beam heating and current drive in the TJ-II stellarator', Nucl. Fusion, 62, 10, 106008.

- Nabais F et al. 2022, 'Bump-on-tail distributions caused by Alfvenic redistribution of energetic ions', Nucl. Fusion, 62, 10, 104001.

Selected research activities

Fusion Group Leader at BSC (fusion.bsc.es)

PI EUROfusion Advanced Computing Hub CIEMAT-BSC (2021-2025, 2M€)

PI FusionCAT (2019-2022, 7 centers, 4 M€)

Scientific Coordinator of EUROfusion experiment “2nd harmonic heating of T in DT plasmas in preparation for ITER” on JET

Member of the EPS Plasma Physics Division Board

Organizer of 3rd Fusion HPC workshop, online event, 2022

Supervisor of 2 PhD students (UPC).

Expert evaluator for promotion of Lorenzo Frassinetti  to Professor in Fusion Plasma Physics with emphasis on Analysis of Experiment Data, KTH (Sweden)

Chair of the evaluation panel of Mathias Hoppe’s PhD, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden

Member of EUROfusion Allocation Committee for Marconi-Fusion