---
title: UMD Scientist Helps Fuel Hopes for Nuclear Fusion
date: 2022-02-17T13:30:00-05:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/umd-scientist-helps-fuel-hopes-for-nuclear-fusion"
section: Articles
---
# UMD Scientist Helps Fuel Hopes for Nuclear Fusion

*February 17, 2022* — by [Maryland Today Staff](/author/maryland-today-staff)


> Breakthrough Once Thought Impossible Brings Bountiful Clean Energy Closer to Reality

*M20200108 01 make Constructed R2 QH Animated 1920x1080 — UMD physicist Matt Landreman (below, right) and research partner Elizabeth Paul Ph.D. '20, a Princeton University postdoc, made a breakthrough in the design of stellarators—plasma traps that could create carbon-free electricity through nuclear fusion.*

A research team including a University of Maryland physicist has made a key breakthrough in the conceptual design of an experimental magnetic facility that could one day reproduce on Earth the fusion energy that powers the sun and stars.

The advance in “twisty stellarator” design is presented in a paper published this week in *Physical Review Letters* and could boost the capability of stellarators to harvest fusion to generate safe and carbon-free electrical power for humankind.


*Elizabeth Paul and Matt Landreman*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Physics](https://today.umd.edu/topic/physics), [Research](https://today.umd.edu/topic/research)


**Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)