Wisconsin (Madison) Plasma Physics

mordechai9

My best offer for graduate school has turned out to be University of Wisconsin - Madison for the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics. I plan on focusing on theoretical/computational plasma physics and magnetic confinement fusion.

Does anybody have any personal experience with the department, or even with the plasma physics research in general at Wisconsin? I've heard really good things about the city (except it's kind of small) and I also know it has a very good plasma physics program. However, it seems like it's very experimental oriented and I haven't yet talked to any students or anybody with a more personal experience of the situation. For example, are there a lot of interdepartmental activities? What is the "vibe" like? Any comments (positive or negative) would be appreciated..

millitiz

Hi. Madison is a really nice city. And the campus is great.
I know our physics department work with Engineer departments a lot. You can check the website.
http://www.physics.wisc.edu/groups/index.html
Basically, we have a whole floor of plasma physicist :D (and another whole floor of particle physicists, for that matter).
And yes, our plasma program is basically the top in the US (2nd according to US News).
But again, I am not an engineer student, and I don't know a lot about the interdepartment work between nuclear/physic engineer and physics department.
I do know that EE is heavily involved in the plasma.

mordechai9

Yea, as far as the interdepartmental thing, there is something like 5-6 faculty in Engineering Physics who focus on plasma physics and fusion. Two of them do theoretical and computational plasma physics, and there is a third, but he is a professor emeritus (no longer advises students). It seems that there are like 2-4 theoretical/computational plasma physics professors in maybe 3 different departments.

millitiz

hmm, it seems like you know a ton of stuff. I am wondering what else do you even need to know?

mordechai9

Heh Heh I know pretty much everything I can figure out off the internet. But I don't know very many personal details, like people's personal experiences, how the faculty treat people, what the atmosphere is like... stuff like that... I am visiting next weekend and hopefully I can convince some of the professors to give me an R.A. position.