IPP and Columbia University establish a joint transatlantic fusion research center
From the Energy digest for 2026-10-21
What happened: The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Germany and Columbia University have established the Max Planck Columbia Center, a new "virtual," joint transatlantic fusion energy research center (ANS, ~2:49 PM ET October 21). The center is co-directed by IPP director Thomas Klinger and Columbia University associate professor Carlos Paz-Soldan, who also serves as director of the Columbia Fusion Research Center.
What's genuinely new: This is a development of the record's fusion-race storyline: the thread already carries Germany's state fusion flank — the milestone-based SPRIND programme launched on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space on October 14 — and partnerships between US labs and outside suppliers, such as DIII-D's Kyoto Fusioneering tie-up. What the IPP–Columbia center adds is an institutional research-collaboration layer between a leading German plasma institute and a US university — no capital raise, policy move, or hardware milestone, but a standing transatlantic frame. Keep the announced-versus-built distinction sharp: the article names the center and its co-directors, and nothing about funding, staffing, or a joint research agenda is in the piece.
Watch: Any disclosed funding or institutional support behind the center, the first joint research programs or experimental campaigns it runs, and whether the "virtual" structure produces concrete exchanges — staff movements, shared diagnostics, or joint papers — that ground the transatlantic framing.
Links: ANS Nuclear Newswire