Jingmei Qiu, a Unidel Professor of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Delaware, serves as a co-Principal Investigator at the Center for Hierarchical and Robust Modeling of Non-Equilibrium Transport (CHaRMNET). CHaRMNET is one of four Mathematical Multifaceted Integrated Capability Centers (MMICCs) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. This five-year center, supported from 2022 to 2027, brings together a multidisciplinary team to address critical challenges in plasma physics and fusion energy through innovative applied mathematics.

CHaRMNET is dedicated to advancing the modeling of plasmas, which are notoriously difficult to simulate and control due to their complex, nonlinear behavior and sensitivity to small changes in initial conditions. Unlike solids or fluids, plasmas possess an extraordinary ability to dynamically redistribute energy, making traditional modeling approaches inadequate for control and prediction.

The University of Delaware leads the center’s efforts in low-rank tensor approximation for multiscale kinetic models, aiming to accelerate high-dimensional simulations. These techniques are designed to produce fast, kinetically informed models in which uncertainty quantification and predictive robustness are essential. Such capabilities are particularly crucial for mitigating disruptions in magnetic confinement fusion and enabling adaptive control in inertial fusion systems operating at high repetition rates.