Experiment Team

The JT-60SA experiment team, stablished in 2022, is one unified Experiment Implementation Structure for the JT-60SA experiment including both Joint Exploitation Programme and the Host Domestic Programme. JT-60SA Experiment Team implements JT-60SA experiment, organizes the related analyses, modeling and simulation and can propose enhancements. The Experiment Team is composed of Experiment Leaders, Topical Group Leaders and participating researchers.

Experiment Leaders

  • The Experiment Leaders have the task to develop the Annual Experiment Programme and submit it to the Project Managers (PMs) for review and to the Project Leader (PL) for approval. The PL then submits the Annual Experiment Programme and the Annual Experiment Report to the PC and BA-SC for approval.
  • The Experiment Leaders act jointly in assessing, prioritizing, and allocating machine time to experimental proposals (within this joint Programme, one of the two JA Experiment Leaders is responsible to coordinate the experimental proposals of the Host Domestic Programme)
  • The Experiment Leaders direct and supervise the Experiment Team in the implementation of the Annual Experiment Programme approved by the PL. They also coordinate and validate the publications related to the Experimental Team activity.
  • The Experiment Leaders receive, assess and make proposals for machine enhancement from the experiment team and submit them to PMs. They also contribute to the evaluation of the machine enhancement proposals from the PMs, in view of executing the Experiment Programme.

From 2021, three experiment leaders, two from Japan and one from Europe, were selected.

Maiko Yoshida

Maiko Yoshida was appointed as JT-60SA Experiment Leader in 2021. From 2008 she is permanent staff researcher at QST (JAEA) where she has conducted physics experiments on the momentum transport, real-time plasma control, and confinement improvement with magnetic shear and rotation shear in JT-60U and other tokamaks. In 2010, she was appointed as the JT-60SA Research Plan Coordinator, and the Transport and Confinement Responsible Officer. From 2021, she is in the chair of the ITPA Transport and Confinement Topical Group, and the leader of the Advanced Plasma Experiment Group at QST.

Hajime Urano

Hajime Urano was appointed as JT-60SA Experiment Leader in 2021. He is permanent staff researcher at JAERI from 2004, JAEA from 2005 and QST from 2016 where he has conducted physics experiments on the edge plasma structure, H-mode transport and confinement, hydrogen isotope effects in JT-60U together with long term research experiences at ASDEX Upgrade and JET. During the period of 2017-2020, he was appointed as the Chair of the ITPA Pedestal and Edge Physics Topical Group. From 2021 he is the Leader of the Advanced Plasma Integrated Analyses Group at QST.

Yevgen Kazakov

Yevgen Kazakov is a senior researcher at the Laboratory for Plasma Physics at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Belgium. From 2016 to 2023, he led a research team at the JET tokamak, contributing to record-breaking fusion experiments and publishing several high-impact papers in Nature Portfolio journals. He is a recipient of the 2018 Landau-Spitzer Award from the APS for pioneering work on plasma heating and energetic ion generation. As a member of the ITPA-EP group and ITER Scientist Fellow, Yevgen has contributed to various fast-ion physics activities in support of ITER. In addition to his research, he served on the EUROfusion Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC), supporting the implementation of Europe’s fusion energy roadmap.

Topical group leaders

A Topical Group Leader has the role to assist the Experiment Leaders in the scientific discussion of experiment proposals and coordinate the execution of the experiments assigned to the Topical Group. The Topical Leader also summarizes the results and reports to the Experiment Leaders.

In 2022, the following topical group leaders were selected:

Operation Regime Development 

Takuma Wakatsuki (QST, Japan)

MHD Stability and Control

Gianluca Pucella (ENEA, Italy)

Transport and Confinement

Luca Garzotti (UKAEA, UK)

High Energy Particle Behavior

Yevgen Kazakov (LPP-ERM/KMS, Belgium)

Pedestal and Edge Physics

Nobuyuki Aiba (QST, Japan)

Divertor, Scrape Off Layer and Plasma-Material Interaction

Tomohide Nakano (QST, Japan)