Dr. Gates is the stellarator physics leader at PPPL. In this role he acts as the US Technical Representative for the International Collaboration on Superconducting Stellarators. He is also the Principle Investigator of an ARPA-E project entitled “Stellarator Simplification using Permanent Magnets”. At Andlinger, Dr. Gates is also performing research on the improvement of stellarator designs and has recently submitted a proposal entitled “Using permanent magnets for near perfect quasi-symmetry in a stellarator”.  Stellarators are a type of plasma containment device that has great promise for creating fusion energy.

If you’d like to learn more about the stellarator concept see Dr. Gates’ lecture: https://www.pppl.gov/events/2021/science-saturday-renaissance-stellarator-fusion-concept

Nuclear power (fission/fusion); nuclear fuel cycle/nonproliferation; neutronics calculations for new systems (e.g. small modular reactors; safeguards and verification; energy policy)

Built environment, structural health monitoring (SHM), advanced SHM technologies, physics- and data-based diagnostics and prognostic, decision making, smart adaptable and deployable structures, heritage and historic structures.

Mid-infrared sensing applications in environment using high-performance quantum cascade lasers; instrument development for remote sensing of pollutants; field deployments of environmental sensors; laser development for mid-infrared, trace-chemical sensors

Role of environment in human health; social and economic factors on adult health and the physiological pathways through which these factors operate

Experimental plasma physics, plasma heating and transport for fusion energy. Edge power handling. Fusion reactor and power plant designs, including tokamak, spherical torus, and stellarator configurations. Socio-economic aspects of nuclear energy, particularly nuclear proliferation risks

Research interests center around the science and applications of non-equilibrium, or ‘low temperature,’ ionized gas plasma. The large range of technological applications and associated scientific approaches requires developing collaborations with colleagues in associated fields, such as materials and surface science, device physics, biochemistry, medicine or agriculture.

Chris Greig is the Theodora D. ’78 and William H. Walton III ’74 Senior Research Scientist at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University. He has a Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D. degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland; is an Honorary Professor at The University of Queensland and University of Melbourne; and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. He is also a member of the Sustainability External Advisory Council at Dow Chemical Company.

Prior to academia, Chris spent almost 3 decades in the energy and resources industries, as a successful company founder, senior executive and non-executive director, across 4 continents. Central to all of his experience, was the development, delivery, and sometimes operations of capital-intensive infrastructure. These included the CEO of ZeroGen (one of the earliest large-scale CCS ventures), the Deputy Chair of Gladstone Ports Corp (owner of one of Australia’s leading energy export hubs), and the Non-Executive Director of several listed engineering firms.

His research is interdisciplinary and deeply collaborative with industry, and focuses on overcoming the challenges to scale-up clean energy and fuels production, carbon capture and storage (CCS), industrial decarbonization, along with climate finance, and energy infrastructure delivery innovation. He co-led Princeton’s influential Net-Zero America study and is leading Princeton’s participation in collaborations on similar studies in Asia-Pacific countries.

Chemical catalysis and biocataysis of hydrocarbon oxidation and functionalization

Control of surface structures for multiple applications, including catalysis and evolving microstructures in solid oxide fuel cells and battery materials