Raffi Nazikian PhD

Raffi Nazikian is Senior Director for Fusion Energy at General Atomics, steering data-driven and HPC-enabled advances for magnetic and inertial confinement fusion. He earned his Ph.D. in plasma physics from the Australian National University, then joined the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he led DIII-D and international collaborations and headed the ITER & Tokamak Department. He is a Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer of the American Physical Society, a two-time Kaul Prize recipient and serves on the coordinating committee of the International Tokamak Physics Activity and the PPPL advisory board. His current focus blends AI, real-time diagnostics, and digital-twin methodologies to accelerate the path from fusion research to commercial energy.

 

Presentation Title:

From Urgent HPC to Interactive Digital Twins: Accelerating Fusion Energy Through the DOEs Integrated Research Infrastructure

Presentation Abstract:

Reliable fusion demands precise control of tightly coupled multiphysics systems where sudden heat loads or instabilities can halt operations. The IRI DIII-D Pathfinder [1] meets this challenge by embedding leadership-class, on-demand HPC directly into DIII-D facility workflows. Two production pipelines now deliver actionable results within minutes: CAKE at NERSC supplies whole-discharge plasma state reconstructions between plasma pulses, while IonOrb at ALCF maps neutral-beam power deposition with a laser-scanned, as-built 3-D vessel model. These outputs feed into a nascent digital-twin platform that merges predictive models, real-time diagnostics, and interactive visualization in the DIII-D control room. The capability will allow operators to simultaneously forecast plasma states, surface heat loads, and optimized scenarios, accelerating decisions, reducing risk, and advancing fusion discovery. The IRI DIII-D Pathfinder thus marks a concrete step toward autonomous, high-fidelity digital twins for next-generation tokamak operations.