About this Event
Columbia University Lecture: An American Degree in Fusion Engineering.
- What: Talk by Dr. Matt Moynihan
- When: Wednesday, September 16th at 10AM
- Where: Mudd Building - Room 210
Problem:
A recent NSF study estimated that a fusion industry could require a workforce that exceeded 25,000 by 2035. As of September 4th, there were over 700 fusion-related openings listed on FusionEnergyBase.com. Although Columbia University announced a minor in January 2026 and UW–Madison launched a concentration in May 2025 there is no four-year degree focused on fusion engineering in the United States. Meanwhile, University of Science and Technology of China announced such a program on May 11, 2026. It is a good time to consider how academia can train students to meet the needs of this emerging fusion industry.
Proposed Solution:
This talk will present a proposed 139-credit-hour undergraduate curriculum in Fusion Engineering; a 2-year master’s and micro-certification program with similar material will also be discussed. The schedule draws upon classes that are currently taught in American universities – including in Nuclear Engineering, US Regulations, Techno-Economic Analysis, Pulsed Power, Plasma Physics, and Physics – but not taught together under a unified degree. The schedule includes traditional Gen Ed requirements, a full engineering mathematics track to Partial Differential Equations, six physics courses, Thermodynamics I and II, Fluid Mechanics I and Introduction to Pulsed Power in the Senior Year. The largest capital expense for colleges would be the purchase of a fusor or commercial neutron source, for a hands-on fusion and materials irradiation laboratory during the Sophomore year; students would be asked to take and pass the 40-hour Radiation Safety Certification (RSC) certification in advance of that hands-on lab. Ten new, fusion-specific, courses will be outlined: (1) Introduction to Fusion Energy, (2) Business of Fusion, (3) Regulating Fusion Power, (4) Introduction to Inertial Fusion Energy, (5) Introduction to Magnetic Confinement Fusion, (6) Applied Superconductivity for Fusion, (7) Superconducting Magnet Design, (8) Fusion Device Modeling, (9) Systems Integration and - a capstone - (10) Fusion Plant Design. Course syllabi for each of these new courses have been assembled - in a pre-print of a book - and hardcover printed copies will be available for review. The schedule calls for five technical electives: Laser Plasma Interaction, Power Electronics, Tritium Systems, Instrumentation and Controls, and an elective on Plasma Structures and Instabilities. Because all fusion firms are startups, this program outlines five electives on entrepreneurship: Scientific Communication, Project Management, Sales and Negotiation, Organizational Leadership and an Introductory Course on Intellectual Property. The proposed schedule will be compared to a Mechanical Engineering degree at Columbia University.
Presenter
Dr. Matthew Moynihan is the Author of Fusion’s Promise (Nature-Springer, 2023) and has been involved in the fusion community since 2006. He worked as a Staff Scientist and Deputy Program Manager at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics and was a Senior Nuclear Engineer for the US Navy working on the licensing of new fission reactors for submarines. In 2018, he founded Fusion Consultants LLC, a boutique consulting firm helping investors assess fusion startups for risk. He was the US consultant on the 2023 and 2024 European Commission Reports on private fusion and sat on the public-private partnership committee for the 2022 Department of Energy Basic Research Needs Report (BRN) for Inertial Fusion Energy. His firm has been a member of the Fusion Industry Association since 2020, and he is an active member of the Government Relations, Space and Supply Chain committees. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester (2013); his thesis was on techniques to mass produce wetted foam shells for the National Ignition Facility. He lives in Pittsford, New York with his wife Alison and their two boys.
Event venue & nearby stays
Columbia University, 116th and Broadway, New York, United States
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