Colin Pavan

Colin Pavan is a PhD candidate whose research focuses on nonthermal plasma (NTP) technologies, which hold significant promise as flexible, scalable, environmentally sound energy sources. Specifically, Colin’s research aims to create new NTP technologies to address needs in clean combustion and low emissions, economically viable sustainable fuel production, CO2 conversion, and more. As a MathWorks Fellow, he will explore a key, yet under-researched, aspect of plasma assisted combustion (PAC), the two-way coupling of plasma and flame. MATLAB plays a central role in Colin’s research, supporting all his experimental work postprocessing, as well as some of his theoretical and numerical work. MATLAB has been especially useful for determining discharge energy deposition, a key parameter in NTP strategies. Colin’s research in plasma evolution over the timescale of transient combustion fills a crucial gap in PAC studies and could help to advance PAC from the laboratory to engineering design applications, and powerful, real-world technologies.