The first year of the PPPL Graduate Summer School: Motivation, execution and lessons learned

With the exception of a handful of institutions, most universities with graduate plasma programs have few plasma physicists in their faculty roster and, therefore, provide a limited number of advanced plasma physics courses. With approximately 100 scientists researching a wide range of plasma physics and technology fields, PPPL is in a unique position to host a summer school aimed at graduate students from different fields of plasma physics and from a variety of universities with the purpose of exposing them to various advanced topics in the field. In 2018, we organized a graduate summer school that targeted students who had completed introductory graduate level courses in E&M and plasma physics but that were early enough in their graduate career that the content covered could be used in their research. The scope was kept broad: Students whose research encompassed plasmas were invited to apply. The school featured mini-courses on topics ubiquitous to many fields of plasma research: Reconnection/Dynamos, Turbulence and Diagnostics; and were taught by PPPL researchers and faculty. Additionally, the students were invited to present on their research and to network with PPPL scientists and students.