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Research Scientist 2
  • Job Number: 25676
  • Functional Area: Research - Scientific
  • Department: Plasma Science and Fusion Center
  • School Area: VP Research
  • Pay Range Minimum: $74,000
  • Pay Range Maximum: $111,000
  • Employment Type: Full-Time
  • Employment Category: Exempt
  • Visa Sponsorship Available: Yes
  • Schedule:
  • Pay Grade: No Grade


Posting Description

RESEARCH SCIENTIST 2, Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), to conduct fundamental and applied research in the areas of Disruptions, MagnetoHydroDynamics (MHD) stability and control, and Machine Learning (ML) applications to fusion science and technology. Will work in a leadership role as part of the newly established Data Science division at MIT’s PSFC, liaising with the Magnetic Fusion Experiments (MFE) and the Theory & Computing divisions. The research scientist will lead or co-lead research topics in the PSFC Disruptions Group (https://disruptions.mit.edu/) and be involved in the management of several sponsored collaborations, in both publicly and privately funded programs. Will have the freedom to pursue their own research interests in plasma physics and fusion; take on the supervision of graduate students and postdoctoral associates; contribute original research to the PSFC program; and produce work for publication in scientific journals and present at scientific conferences. It is expected that some research efforts will be dedicated to the development of ML-driven use cases for the DOE sponsored programs, either in the Tokamak Research program or in support FIRE collaboratives, and to the development of Disruption Prevention, Avoidance, and Mitigation strategies for SPARC and ARC.

This position will be 100% on-campus at MIT in Cambridge, MA.

Job Requirements

REQUIRED: Ph.D. Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Plasma Science, or a related field; experience with plasma physics, MHD stability, or fusion energy research; experience with experimental planning, experimental data analysis, and model development and deployment in control systems; familiarity with Machine Learning and data science applications; four years of experience post PhD conducting original scientific research as well as publishing in scientific journals; demonstrated skills in scientific programming (Python preferred),and common open-source software development practices; strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a multi-institutional environment, including staff and students from MIT, other universities, national laboratories, and private industry; and commitment to mentoring and outreach in support of a diverse research community. PREFERRED: Familiarity with large-scale data management, and FAIR data principles.

4/29/2026