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171115_MITScholars_NickSchwartz_DSCF7615 - Nick Schwartz
Nick Schwartz
Postdoctoral Associate
NW17-218
Lab Website
Biography

Nick Schwartz is a postdoctoral associate at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, where he designs fusion diagnostics for inertial fusion energy and develops fusion target platforms for laboratory astrophysics. He earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Maryland, where he helped design and build the Centrifugal Mirror Fusion eXperiment, winning Maryland's Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award. Before Maryland he held a Marshall Scholarship in the UK, earning research degrees at Oxford and Imperial College London, and he holds a bachelor's in mechanical engineering from MIT.

Education
  • PhD, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, 2024
  • MSc, Research in Engineering Science, University of Oxford, 2020
  • MSc, Advanced Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, 2019
  • SB, Mechanical Engineering, MIT, 2018
Awards
  • Caramello Distinguished Dissertation Award, UMD (2025)
  • University winner, 3-Minute Thesis Competition, UMD (2024)
  • Phi Kappa Phi Society (2024)
  • Achievement Rewards for College Scientists, Metro Washington Chapter Scholarship (2022)
  • Marshall Scholarship (2018)

Plasma and fusion diagnostics; nuclear astrophysics; pulsed power; centrifugal mirrors

  • - N. R. Schwartz, C. W. Wink, B. I. Buschmann, S. Langendorf, C. Esquivel, M.
  • Rubery, M. Wonders, J. Colucci, P. Adrian, A. B. Zylstra, G. P. A. Berg, S. Mackie,
  • J. H. Kunimune, M. Gatu Johnson, J. A. Frenje. The next-generation magnetic
  • recoil spectrometer for measurements of the absolute neutron spectrum at Pacific
  • Fusion’s Demonstration System (under review).
  • - N. R. Schwartz, B. C. Clifford, C. Chun, E. H. Frashure, M. Wiratmo, H. Wilson,
  • K. M. Sturge, N. Hoppis, J. R. FitzGibbon, E. T. Basinger, B. L. Beaudoin, R. J.
  • Phaneuf, J. Cumings, and T. W. Koeth (2025). Observation and characterization of
  • periodic structure formation in dielectric breakdown channels of electron-irradiated
  • polymethyl methacrylate J. Appl. Phys., 139. doi.org/10.1063/5.0308472
  • - N. R. Schwartz, C. A. Romero-Talamas, M. Patino, D. Nishijima, M. J. Baldwin,
  • R. P. Doerner, A. Perevalov, N. Eschbach, Z. Short, J. Cumings, I. G. Abel, B.
  • Beaudoin, T. W. Koeth (2025). Electrically insulating materials for centrifugal
  • mirrors. J. Nuc. Mat., 615. doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2025.155957
  • - N. R. Schwartz, I. G. Abel, A. B. Hassam, M. Kelly, C. A. Romero Talamas
  • (2024). MCTrans++: a 0-D model for centrifugal mirrors. J. Plasma Phys., 90.
  • doi:10.1017/S0022377824000424
  • - N. R. Schwartz, J. Nicholas, Z. Jackson, P. Ireland (2021). Development of a novel
  • DEMO divertor target: spiral plate module. Physica Scripta, 96. doi:10.1088/1402-
  • 4896/AC2540
  • UMD Commencement Address, May 23, 2025 (https://www.youtube.com/live/Pcnr1j8BwSA?si=DWLbxJhE4REcpItj&t=1743)
  • UMD-winning 3 Minute Thesis, 2024 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSDD87ARLas&t=42s)