Kush Maheshwari

Pronouns
he/him
Position
2022
Role
Advisor: H. Ji
Bio/Description

Current Project: Proof-of-principle experiments and simulations exploring electrodeless Magnetic Reconnection Thrusters.

Kush joined the plasma physics program in 2022 after graduating with an undergraduate degree in Applied Mathematics and Astrophysics from UC Berkeley. For his first and second year project, Kush is investigating the possibility of using magnetic reconnection to generate thrust for spacecraft. The project involves a combination of experiments on the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment and PIC simulations with neutral physics.

Before graduate school, he worked on understanding magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetopause using spacecraft (MMS) data and helped extend the TORAY ray tracing code for the DIII-D tokamak. Outside of work, he enjoys singing, taking walks, movies and TV, improv, and talking shop (that is, parasitology and airline logistics). Kush grew up in Minnesota and misses his family dearly.

Kush is always happy to talk about protozoans exhibiting antigenic variation and, yes, plasma physics too (especially waves). For any questions about his research or the program, he can be reached at [email protected]