Yashika Ghai

Yashika Ghai is an R&D Staff Scientist in Fusion Energy Division at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). She is an expert in fundamental plasma physics and high-performance computing (HPC), and currently investigates the behavior of energetic particles  in fusion plasma environments such as neutral beam-injected high-energy deuterium ions, fusion-born alphas, and runaway electrons produced during disruptions.  She is an expert on gyro-fluid and particle tracking models to predict energetic particle transport in presence of plasma instabilities. She also works on developing machine learning based surrogate models that calculate alpha particle transport fluxes in the presence of Alfven eigenmodes. Such models are needed for faster and reasonable accurate predictions of alpha particle transport in integrated workflows for a fusion reactor design and to analyze the impact of alpha transport on its burn performance.

Yashika joined ORNL in 2019 as a postdoctoral researcher in the Fusion energy division. Since May 2021, Yashika has been a permanent staff member in the Plasma Theory and Modeling group. She earned her Ph.D. in theoretical plasma physics from Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, in 2019. During her Ph.D., Yashika focussed on studying nonlinear waves and coherent structures in space dusty plasma environments.

Yashika is passionate about promoting fusion science to the general public and engaging in educational outreach. She co-chairs the Education and Outreach Committee for the Fusion and Fission Energy Sciences Directorate (FFESD). During her Ph.D., she volunteered as an editor for the science blog “The Secrets of the Universe” (https://secretsofuniverse.in/), where she regularly wrote popular science articles and shared her research experiences. She co-authored the “Month of Equations” series, posting daily articles on famous scientific equations, and contributed to the “Basics of Astrophysics” series.