PPPL’s Science Education Department’s Efforts in Public Engagement and Training the Plasma and Fusion Workforce*

Major recent reports from APS-DPP, NASEM, and the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee have called for increased public engagement and training of the workforce to ensure our community meets the workforce needs of fusion energy and plasma sciences, especially engaging populations historically excluded from the fields. The Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory’s Science Education Department, with funding from the Department of Energy’s Offices of Fusion Energy Science and Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, supports efforts to address these challenges. In this talk, the author will share PPPL’s Science Education Department’s public engagement and workforce development efforts, highlighting internships, K-12 teacher and student programming, and PPPL’s contributions to the development of Plasma NET (Plasma Network for Engagement and Training), a community of practitioners and experts to foster collaboration and coordination, in collaboration with The Coalition for Plasma Science.