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Supported by FuseNet, Amit Kharwandikar went to the Swiss Plasma Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland. There, Amit worked on the power exhaust problem for next-step fusion devices. He also enjoyed the support his supervisors and other SPC scientists gave him. His work at SPC even motivated Amit to pursue a doctoral title in his field!

Supported by FuseNet, Foisal Bin Touhid Siddiki travelled to the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Germany for his thesis. He ran experiments on the helicon plasma source of the IShTAR test facility, to optimize the plasma source of this device and validate the experimental results. He also enjoyed the experience working at a renowned research center.

Supported by FuseNet, Sim Bouwmans went to General Atomics in San Diego, USA. He worked on the topic of replacing the Langmuir probe diagnostics of MACE with spectroscopic measurements. He also loved San Diego, because it was so close to the ocean!

Supported by FuseNet, Francesca Cella went to Lisbon's Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear. For her MSc thesis she worked in the Theory and Modelling group where sje studied Alfvén instabilities in fusion plasmas. These instabilities can be detrimental to tokamak operation and thus need to be carefully understood. On her days of she discovered the two souls of Lisbon. What she means with that? Read all about it here!

Supported by FuseNet, Jos Scholte went to ENEA Brasimone in Italy to work on a water-cooled lithium blanket. He modelled the injection of high-temperature pressured water into the experimental device. His simulations didn't match with experiments, at first at least. Normally, if the theory doesn't fit experimental data you throw out the theory, but in this case it was the other way around. Jos found out that a leaky valve was the culprit. He also loved his monday pizza sessions at work.

Supported by FuseNet, Sander Heester worked at the Institute for Plasma Physics in Prague as part of his internship. During this time he worked on a new diagnostic for detection of runaway electrons in COMPASS tokamak, vertical-ECE. During the weekends he explored Prague and all it had to offer.

Supported by FuseNet, Marco Muraca went to do his Master's thesis at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energery (CCFE), home to the as-of-yet biggest nuclear fusion device: the Joint European Torus (JET). He worked on understanding the role of anomalous transport during the ELM cycles. He spent his free days in the pubs and gyms of Abington, and in the vibrant town of Oxford, rich in culture, concerts and parties.

Supported by FuseNet, Antonio De Falco spent six months in Lisbon at ISTTOK tokamak for his master thesis in Automation Engineering. He developed an algorithm for a real-time estimation of the plasma current centroid position. In his time off he visited all manner of attractions and events that Lisbon had to offer.

Supported by FuseNet, Maximilian Ayling, Henrik Jaerleblad and Aleksandar Opancar attended the 56th annual edition of the Culham Plasma Physics Summer School. The school aims at a fundamental description of plasma physics, while also showing the broadness of plasmas' field of application. Maximilian, Henrik and Aleksandar ended up learning some cutting-edge physics while making life-long friends in the process!

Supported by FuseNet, Andreas Smolders went to the Swiss Plasma Center in Lausanne. He worked on plasma detachment control of the TCV tokamak. He studied the possible actuators and sensors that could be useful for the TCV control system.

Supported by FuseNet, Alexis Devitre went to CIEMAT in Madrid for his Master's thesis. He worked with getter-films: thin atomic depositions used across industries to complete and maintain vacuum. Particularly, he was interested in how the boron coating, used in TJ-II to protect this lithium getter-film, affected its functioning.

Supported by FuseNet, José went to the Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie to work on pellet injection. The case that he worked on was a design of a pellet injector for DEMO. He put a lot of effort into analysing what the best type of extruder would be.

Supported by FuseNet, Francesca Cella and Yuliia Volkova went to the EPS Plasma Physics conference in Milan from 8 to 12 July. The European Physical Society Plasma Physics Division organizes this conference every year. Both Francesca and Yuliia presented posters of their research at EPS.

Supported by FuseNet, Luca Cristale went to the Instituto Superior Tècnico in Lisbon to work on fusion diagnostics. In five months' time he got to improve his knowledge of fusion technology, converse with in-the-field researchers and enjoy both culture and sports in the beautiful city of Lisbon.

Supported by FuseNet, Neil Lamas went to CIEMAT in Madrid, home to the TJ-II stellarator. For his Master's thesis, he worked on optimising stellarators with regard to neoclassical transport for a full four months. Not only did he learn a lot about fusion theory, he also discovered the 24/7, vibrant and cosmopolitan streets of Madrid.

Supported by FuseNet, Manuel Agredano Torres, Jakub Caloud and Yacopo Damizia also went to Lisbon's Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear to attend PlasmaSurf 2019. It covers the basics of plasma science, intense laser-plasma interaction and fusion technology. To boot, it involves a lot of surfing and rock climbing!

Supported by FuseNet, Antonello Zito went to the Max-Planck-Institut  für Plasmaphysik in Garching. At the Plasma Edge and Wall dvision, he studied the propagation of high-density blobs in the scrape-off layer, i.e. the outermost part of the fusion plasma. He was very satisfied, both with his results and with getting to live in a beautiful city like Munich.

Supported by FuseNet, Javier Hidalgo Salaverri, Jordi Manyer Fuertes and Dante Loi went to Lisbon's Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear to attend PlasmaSurf 2019. It covers the basis of plasma science, intense lasers-plasma interaction and fusion technologies. As for the surfing part, well, check out the photo at the bottom of the article.

Supported by FuseNet, both Wenling Dong and Uladzislava Yevarouskaya visited the 10th Festival de Théorie in Aix-en-Province. This year’s edition was all about phase dynamics, and both Wenling and Uladzislava would like to tell you something about their experiences!

Supported by FuseNet, Caterina Cavallini went to Lisbon's Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion to study the wettability of stainless steel by liquid gallium. Being a chemist at heart, she overcame her initial worries and poured herself into understanding vacuum technology to build the device she was going to experiment with. On Fridays, she enjoyed the local cerveja in the brewery with her lab mates.

Supported by FuseNet, Allessandro Cianciulli went Lisbon's Institute for Plasmas and Nuclear Fusion. He worked on algorithms to real-time reconstruct the plasma current inISTTok tokamak, which is special in that it operates in alternating-current mode. In his free time he surfed the cold, cold ocean and climbed the beautifuls cliffs.

Supported by FuseNet, Vito Konrad Zotta went to Culham Centre for Fusion Energy's JET. He worked on modelling different plasma scenarios for JET's next experimental campaigns. In his free time he enjoyed the city of Oxford, with its many interesting activities, concerts and events.

Supported by FuseNet, Tertyshna Mariia went to the Belgian Nuclear Research Center SCK-CEN, where worked on her Master's thesis. She researrched three-point bending dependencies of ductile-to-brittle-transition-temperature-minimised tungsten samples. On her days of she enjoyed sports, travelling, and tasting national dishes.

Supported by FuseNet, Stefano Marchioni went to the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Munich. He worked on localising tearing modes by analysing Electron Cyclotron Emission with Singular Value Decomposition. Even though the weather was sometimes tough, he discovered several nice activities in the city and the delicious beer,

Supported by FuseNet, Anej Valic attended GOMTRAIC at the Czech Technical University in Prague. Together with others, he had a five-day hands-on experience with the GOLEM tokamak. He worked with several plasma diagnostics and had to overcome some challenges associated with doing experimental work.

Supported by FuseNet, Enrico Aymerich went to Culham Centre for Fusion Energy to do his internship . In his time there, he developed and optimised two algorithms for the identification of MHD modes in the plasma. On his days off, he visited some of the famous university that Britain boasts, as well as the famous Seven Sisters Cliffs.

Supported by FuseNet, Lars van Ruremonde got to be part of the diagnostics group at Tokamak Energy Ltd., in Oxfordshire, England, where he did his master graduation project. He worked on spectroscopic simulations and was happy to do his research together with colleagues in the group, under the supervision of dr. Vladimir Shevchenko.

Supported by FuseNet, Joost Lammers went to the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he worked in the plasma control group. His internship was about predicting neoclassical tearing modes in tokamaks using offline data from equilibrium solvers. In his free time he toured governmental America (UN HQ, Pentagon, etc.) and even had a sit in Einstein's old office.

Supported by FuseNet, Pim Joosten went to the National Institute for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology in Naka, Ibaraki, Japan. He worked on the conceptual evaluation of a type of breeding blanket. Reminiscing about Japan, Pim misses the culture and food – especially the noodles.

Supported by FuseNet, Jaap Hermens went to the University of Sydney, where he worked on the analysis of deuterium ion motion in and intertial electrostatic confinement device (more colloquially dubbed 'fusor'). In his spare time he discovered the city and upon completion of the internship he went on a month-long roadtrip.

Supported by FuseNet, Katia Camacho Mata went to the Institute Jean Lamour In Nancy, where performed self-consistent calculations of the bootstrap current for the ESTELL stellarator. Beautiful Art Nouveau architecture and fantastic French food complemented her stay.

Supported by FuseNet, Berend Gort went to the Swiss Plasma Centre, where he investigated the dynamic limitations of a new mirror that reflects high-power electromagnetic microwaves into the plasma. In the weekends, he braved all the slopes within driving distance of Lausanne on his skis.

Supported by FuseNet, Robin Somers attended a unique hands-on experience at WEST-tokamak. He got the pick of a range of subjects, ranging from turbulence studies in stellarators to analysing plasma-facing components for ITER.

Supported by FuseNet, Laurens van der Leden went to the Karlsrüher Institut für Technologie where he worked on developing a database that stores the properies of all kinds of materials relevant for fusion. Along the way, he upped his C++ and SQLite skills as well as his German.

Supported by FuseNet, Alexis Devitre attended the IRFM Winter Event in CEA Cadarache as part of the second-year programme of the European Master in Fusion Science and Engineering Physics. His work on the backend of an ICRH antenna and on testing plasma-facing components have helped him appreciate the practical end of fusion science.

Supported by FuseNet, Matthias Werl did part of his MSc thesis research at Columbia University in New York, USA. He worked on explaining synergistic effects resulting form microwave heating in combination with a heated and biased filament, which result in unexpectedly high densities. In his free time he went on several (fusion-related) roadtrips, to the beach and some big US cities.

Supported by FuseNet, Lidija Radovanovic went to the Max Planck Insitute for Plasma Physics in Garching, where, using an existing numerical code, she worked on a better understanding of how to combat ELMs using... ELMs. In her free time she explored the wonders of Bavaria and rediscovered her love of swimming.

Supported by FuseNet, Tristan Neelis went to the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. He worked on investigating neutral beam attenuation of the newly implemented neutral beam source at Wendelstein 7-X.

Supported by FuseNet, Stef Voermans went to NIFS in Toki, Japan, home to the Large Helical Device. He worked on the tongue-shaped instability in the peripheral region of the plasma, analysing data LHD. In his free time, he went hiking, and explored cities and amusement parks alike.

Supported by FuseNet, Mathis Feuvrie went to the Institute of Plasma Physics, Prague, to work on the design of a robotic liquid lithium manipulator to perform a study on the thermodynamic behaviour of liquid lithium in the tokamak. In his free time, he enjoyed the marvels of Prague, beautiful architecture and cold beers.