Scientific Highlights LSM

The prestigious Fellow Award “Fellow of The Combustion Institute” was allotted to Dr. Mantzaras for “Pioneering Experimental and Modeling Research in Hetero-/Homogeneous and Catalytic Combustion”. The combustion activities at LSM emphasize on non-intrusive laser-based measurements in a high-pressure optically accessible catalytic reactor, while the modeling activities encompass advanced multidimensional numerical simulations and theoretical work based on activation energy asymptotics.

With the imminent relaxation of socio-economic restrictions, it becomes vital to assess its effect on the prevalence of acute infections within the population, as rapidly as possible. Currently available monitoring instruments for the COVID-19 pandemic have an inherent time delay of about 14 days, as they rely on confirmed infections, hospitalizations, and death numbers. These methods give R_eff(t) (the number of infections caused by a single infected person), but their delay is a significant disadvantage when restrictions are released. If after relaxation, R_eff(t) rises above 1, one will not be able to react adequately before two weeks have passed during which time the prevalence could significantly rise. Here, we propose the use of random testing to shorten this reaction time, by obtaining direct and modeling dependent information on R_eff(t). Through random testing of between 2500 and 20000 people per day, we find that over periods significantly shorter than two weeks, it becomes possible to detect a dangerous increase in R_eff with reasonable confidence.

The EU Horizon 2020 program granted 3.5 million Euros to the research and innovation project SAMOSAFER, where PSI is one of the 14 project partners. The total budget of the project, inclusive own and in-kind contributions, is 4.5 million Euros. The aim of SAMOSAFER project is to develop and demonstrate new safety barriers and a more controlled behaviour in severe accidents of the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR). Three groups at PSI will be involved in the project: the LSM groups for Advanced Nuclear Systems (ANS) and Multiscale Materials Modelling (MMM) and the Severe Accidents Research group (Sacre) of LRT, focusing on redistribution of the source term in the fuel treatment unit of MSR and assessment and reduction of radionuclide mobility during accidental conditions.

Dr Christopher Mudry, who joined PSI in 1999 and is Research Group Leader of the Condensed Matter Theory Group at PSI since 2009, was awarded the title of Adjunct Professor at EPF Lausanne with the following citation. "Dr Christopher Mudry is a highly acclaimed theoretical physicist. He is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on the quantum field theory of condensed matter and in the rapidly developing field of the topological properties of matter."