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Maxime Lesur

Maxime Lesur

Université de Lorraine

Maxime Lesur is an Associate Professor in plasma physics at the Institut Jean Lamour, Université de Lorraine, Visiting Professor at Kyushu University, Invited Research Fellow at Tokyo University. Since 2022, he is a member of the Institut Universitaire de France, a prestigious French institution that promotes high-level academic research. His research focuses on the fundamental dynamics of plasmas, including wave-particle interactions, turbulence, and the development of numerical models to study instabilities in magnetic confinement fusion devices, such as tokamaks. Lesur has contributed significantly to the understanding of kinetic instabilities, particularly their nonlinear behavior. He has published numerous papers in leading journals such as Nuclear Fusion, and is involved in international collaborations aimed at advancing controlled fusion as a viable energy source.
He developed theoretical models and bridged them with experimental observations, contributing to international fusion research efforts, including collaborations with major fusion experiments like LHD (Large Helical Device) and ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor).
In addition to his research, Lesur is an active academic, mentoring graduate students and contributing to the development of fusion plasma physics curricula. He is the Head of the Master’s program Physics of Plasma and Fusion Energy (M2 PPEF).

Thermonuclear fusion and magnetic confinement: from supercomputing to prototype reactors

Fusing light atoms (rather than splitting heavy ones) is an ideal solution to the energy crisis. The recipe: heat a hydrogen gas to 150 million degrees and control it with magnets. In principle, a gram of hydrogen isotopes is enough to fulfill the needs of a standard household for 10 years. The fuel for fusion is abundant; deuterium can be extracted from seawater, and tritium can be produced from lithium, although the latter poses significant technological challenges. Over the past decades, fusion research has made exponential progress, driven by advancements in multiple fields. The development of massively parallel computation, capable of simulating the complex behavior of turbulent, electromagnetic plasma fluctuations, has helped refine and optimize fusion reactor designs and their operation. Additionally, improvements in data storage and high-speed data transfer technologies enabled processing the vast amounts of experimental and simulation data. Are we now on the brink of constructing the first operational fusion reactor? What are the main remaining challenges to make fusion a commercially-viable source of energy?