Fatima Ebrahimi

Fatima Ebrahimi is an Iranian-American physicist and inventor. She carries out theoretical and computational plasma physics research for applications including fusion energy and space and astrophysical plasmas. She is a principal research physicist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Theory Department and an affiliated research scholar at the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University.

Ebrahimi's most notable contribution to science has been her research on how plasmoids (plasma objects enclosed by magnetic fields) can be used to create the initial plasma current in compact spherical tokamaks and produce thrust for space propulsion. Her proposed electromagnetic plasma thruster utilizes magnetic reconnection for magnetic-to-kinetic energy conversion, emulating the physical mechanism that generates solar flares. demonstrated that thrust is generated by expulsion of continuously created plasmoids, when magnetic helicity is injected into an annular thruster channel.

Princeton University has a patent pending on the thruster technology, which "may come to be known as the Ebrahimi Drive – an engine inspired by fusion reactors and the incredible power of solar Coronal Mass Ejections". and for plasmoid reconnection.