George R. Tynan received his Ph.D. in 1991 from the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. He then spent several years studying the effect of sheared flows on plasma turbulence on experiments located in the Federal Republic of Germany and at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He joined the UCSD faculty in 1999. At UCSD he carried out research into fundamental plasma turbulence self-organization, the physics origin of high-confinement mode and of the density limit in tokamaks, and fundamental plasma-material interactions in fusion conditions. He served as Department Chair, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, and Associate Dean of Engineering, and held the Kazuo Iwama Endowed Chair. He retired as Distinguished Professor Emeritus in 2025 when he joined the MIT NSE Department where he serves as the Norm J. Rasmussen Adjunct Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering.
Professor Tynan’s current research is focused on the plasma physics of controlled nuclear fusion as an energy source. He studies the fundamental physics of turbulent transport at the boundary of fusion plasmas and is particularly interested in how the plasma interacts with the walls and high-flux regimes of fusion devices. In addition, he is investigating how solid materials respond to and are degraded by exposure to simultaneous fusion plasma and energetic neutrons. He is also interested in the larger issue of transitioning to a sustainable energy economy based upon a mixture of efficient end use technologies, large scale deployment of renewable energy sources, and incorporation of a new generation of nuclear technologies such as advanced fission and fusion reactor systems.
22.611 Introduction to Plasma Physics 1