Patrick Vail is a graduate student who is advised by Prof. Egemen Kolemen. His current research focuses on the development of control systems for fusion plasmas, primarily to address the challenges of plasma shape and heat flux control in current and future tokamaks. Patrick has a broad interest in applying plasma physics to the solution of engineering problems and has also worked on the development of advanced plasma propulsion systems for spacecraft. Patrick received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2011. Before attending Princeton, he worked as a full-time propulsion engineer at SpaceX.