The Austrian research unit of the European fusion research programme organises an annual event called “Fusion Day”, which takes place in November. Its purpose is to provide scientists from all over Austria with a space to convene and exchange their results. Usually, a key note speaker opens this event.
This year’s Fusion Day took place on 20 November and, due to COVID-19 restrictions, was hosted via the video conference tool “Zoom” for the first time. The event started at 9 a.m. with Professor Friedrich Aumayr, Head of the Austrian Research Unit and professor at the Vienna University of Technology, giving a brief welcome speech. He then introduced this year’s keynote speaker, nuclear plasma fusion specialist Matteo Barbarino of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency).
After his keynote speech entitled “IAEA's Activities in Support of Nuclear Fusion Research and Technology”, several shorter talks by young scientists with an estimated duration of 20 minutes each followed. In these presentations, they reported on the research results of their project groups. The Austrian fusion research programme comprises 12 research groups in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, Leoben and Innsbruck.
02:15 p.m. marked the end of the event. 33 participants met and had the chance to network and to exchange results. The next Fusion Day will hopefully take place in person and will be hosted in Graz.