Post by Karim B.

Fusion of cultures meets fusion of reactors ⚛️ I’m not usually one for public reflection, but I had a proper ‘pinch me’ moment recently that I believe is worth sharing. I want to share it because I feel I’d be doing myself - and others who started from similar positions - an injustice if I didn’t stop and acknowledge the changes in my circumstances over the last nine years. I hope it encourages others on similar journeys to take a moment to reflect, share, and show gratitude. Dramatic introduction over, here’s a quick life update (hopefully the first of a few more), marking the end of my LinkedIn hiatus, fuelled by the desire to stop my brother’s incessant pestering. Last month, I stood in the assembly hall of ITER Organization in the south of France during a training visit kindly organised by our NEF CDT (big thanks to Jonathan Tate). For those outside the sphere of nuclear fusion, ITER represents one of the largest science and engineering collaborations, not just in fusion, but in research more broadly. Fusion is the densest feasible energy source we know, and ITER is one of the most ambitious efforts to harness it. When ITER goes live, it will aim to demonstrate net energy gain through magnetic confinement fusion. The scale of this project, mechanically, logistically, and even politically, represents an enormous change in the way we will view energy production. So what caused the ‘pinch me’ moment, and why does it matter? Watching ITER being assembled piece by piece, surrounded by enormous structures and equally enormous (metaphorically) scientific communication efforts, I had to pause and take in the contrast with what my life and its trajectory looked like almost a decade ago. Nine years ago, I arrived in London as a refugee. I didn’t speak English. I couldn’t even understand the airport staff. Fast forward through many hours of ESOL classes, four years of undergraduate study, and a year and a half (and counting) of postgraduate research, and I now find myself contributing to this field and presenting my work at international conferences, and, thankfully, understanding more than just “Welcome to the UK.” I know there are others in my network with similar paths. By sharing this, I hope to spark a bit of reflection on our shared beginnings and on the resilience it’s taken to move from surviving global issues to solving them. Figures 1 & 2 - wondering whether I'd make a good plasma-facing component after AI learns to operate the TEM. Figure 3 - Some ten winters ago, a bit less fusion-y. ‎قُلۡ بِفَضۡلِ ٱللَّهِ وَبِرَحۡمَتِهِۦ فَبِذَٰلِكَ فَلۡيَفۡرَحُواْ ۖ هُوَ خَيۡرٌۭ مِّمَّا يَجۡمَعُونَ