As part of our Friday with Friends, we are offering this live streamed lecture FREE.

Looking at the past, present and possible future of fusion energy, Dr Windridge considers why development has taken so long and how, with new technologies, we may be able to get to commercial fusion faster.

Fusion is the reaction that powers the stars – nuclei colliding and combining produce huge amounts of energy with no greenhouse gases and no long-lived radioactive waste.  This makes fusion the ultimate energy source and scientists have been trying to do it on Earth for decades.  But it has so far proved elusive.

We will take a closer look at Tokamak Energy, a start-up developing new superconducting magnet technology to make more efficient, smaller fusion machines.  Could this be the key to cracking fusion?

Dr Melanie Windridge is a plasma physicist, speaker, writer… with a taste for adventure! She has a PhD in fusion energy from Imperial College London, is Communications Consultant for fusion start-up Tokamak Energy, and has worked in education with the Ogden Trust, Anturus and the Your Life campaign. She is the author of Aurora: In Search of the Northern Lights and Star Chambers, an introductory book on fusion energy. She has climbed Mount Everest. Melanie loves the mountains and believes science and exploration go hand in hand.