About our group

UPDATE: Effective July 1st, Dr. Winfrey will be leaving Penn State to serve as the Dean of the School of Engineering at the State University of New York (SUNY) Maritime College. Please forward all lab inquiries to her new email address, lwinfrey@sunymaritime.edu.

We are the BEARS lab, specializing in all things plasmas and fusion! Our lab focuses primarily on the interactions between plasmas of various temperatures and number densities with materials of interest. Our ongoing experiments include:

  • High Heat Flux materials analysis using Electrothermal (ET) plasma ablation
  • Materials Characterization of space nuclear system components
  • Computational modeling of interactions between plasmas and other phases (liquids, gases)
  • Materials in extreme environments
  • Plasma formation under high radiation and heat fluxes

…and more!

To learn more, please contact Dr. Leigh Winfrey at leigh.winfrey@psu.edu.