Biography

Joaquim Loizu was born in Barcelona, Spain. He graduated in Physics at EPFL, carrying out his Master thesis project at the Center for Bio-Inspired Technology, Imperial College London, on the theoretical and numerical study of the biophysics of light-sensitive neurons.
 
 In 2009, he started his PhD studies at the Swiss Plasma Center of EPFL. His thesis focused on the theory of plasma-wall interactions and their effect on the mean flows and turbulence in magnetized plasmas. He obtained his PhD in 2013 and was awarded the European Physical Society Plasma Physics PhD Research Award.
 
 In 2014, he became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, spending one year at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (in the USA) and one year at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics (in Germany). During this time, he worked on three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics, studying the formation of singular currents and magnetic islands at rational surfaces. 
 
 In 2016, he obtained an Eurofusion Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue his research at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics. During this time, he focused on the computation of 3D MHD equilibria in stellarators, including the possibility of magnetic islands and magnetic field-line chaos. 
 
 In 2018, he joined the Swiss Plasma Center as a Scientist and Lecturer. He is also a PI of the Simons Collaboration on Hidden Symmetries and Fusion Energy. His current research interests include stellarators, MHD equilibrium and stability, magnetic reconnection, non-neutral plasmas, plasma sheaths, plasma turbulence, and plasma transport in chaotic magnetic fields.

 In 2020, he was awarded the Young Scientist Prize in Plasma Physics from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.