Prof. Jack Hare

Professor Hare studies plasmas, the hot matter which make up most of the universe. He is an experimental physicist and mostly studies high-energy-density-plasmas, which is a catch-all name for plasmas which are hot and dense, which distinguishes them from magnetically confined plasmas (which are hot and sparse) and atmospheric discharges used in industry (which are cold and dense).

In particular, Hare create plasmas using intense electrical currents (around 1 MA), which heat initially solid materials to the plasma state. This processes also generates very large magnetic fields (10s T or more) which accelerate the plasmas to high speeds (100s km/s). These hot, dense, magnetised plasmas are ideal for testing fundamental concepts in plasma physics, and mimicking the extreme conditions found in astrophysical objects.

Hare is an assistant professor at the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department at MIT, where he is developing a new pulsed-power generator for producing high-energy-density plasmas. Previously he worked as a graduate student and post doc at the MAGPIE pulsed power generator at Imperial College London.