Dr Daniel Kennedy

I am a theoretical plasma physicist at the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at Culham, where I lead research on core plasma turbulence for MAST-U, the UK’s flagship fusion experiment, and contribute to the development of STEP, the UK's prototype fusion power plant. I also lecture in theoretical plasma physics at the University's Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics.

I came to Oxford in 2013 from a state sixth-form college in Bury, Greater Manchester, and studied Mathematics, followed by Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, at Merton College. I completed my PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany, working on the kinetic theory of electron-positron plasmas, before returning to Oxfordshire in 2021 to join UKAEA. 

A list of my publications can be found on google scholar. 

I will be lecturing the following courses in the current academic year: 

Hilary Term 2027 MMathPhys Collisionless Plasma Physics 

Fusion reactors confine plasma at temperatures exceeding one hundred million degrees using magnetic fields. The plasma is turbulent, and that turbulence leaks heat out of the machine faster than almost any other process. Predicting this transport, and finding ways to reduce it, is a central problem in my research. I use gyrokinetic theory, the kinetic theory of charged particles in strong magnetic fields, to study this transport.

I am particularly interested in spherical tokamaks, from MAST Upgrade (MAST-U) at Culham to next-generation reactors such as STEP. In these machines, the plasma pressure can become large enough to distort the confining magnetic field, giving rise to electromagnetic instabilities known as kinetic ballooning modes. My recent work characterises these modes, shows how the turbulence they drive can switch abruptly between low- and high-transport states, and identifies routes to "second stability", a regime in which increasing pressure can become stabilising rather than destabilising.

I also retain broader interests in electron-positron plasmas and in turbulence in geophysical and astrophysical fluids.

Before returning to Oxford, I completed my PhD on the kinetic theory of electron-positron plasmas, supervised by Prof. Per Helander in the Stellarator Theory division of the Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. 

My research involved understanding the underlying physical challenges on the road to magnetic confinement of electron-positron plasmas. 

A recurring source of plasma instabilities can be, to a significant degree, attributed to the large difference in mass ratio between the positively charged species (ions) and negatively charged species (electrons). In contrast to conventional ion-electron plasmas, electron-positron (pair) plasmas consist of particles exhibiting charge asymmetry and mass symmetry and present an exciting new frontier in plasma physics, with mass symmetry resulting in unique behaviour. My work focused on several subfields such as (i) the kinetic theory of Coulomb collisions in strongly anisotropic plasmas; (ii) linear and nonlinear gyrokinetic simulations using both Eulerian and particle-in-cell (PIC) codes; and (iii) the theory of non-neutral and partially neutralised plasmas.

Biography

• 2021-present: Plasma Turbulence Modeller, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.
• 2017-2020: PhD, Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics.
• 2016-2017: MMathPhys Mathematical and Theoretical Physics, Merton College, University of Oxford.
• 2013-2016: BA Mathematics, Merton College, University of Oxford