Expert Interview: Soren Prestemon on Magnet Technology

Why It Matters

Advances in magnet technology directly enable higher‑energy colliders, more efficient light sources, and emerging fusion devices, driving scientific discovery and creating a multi‑billion‑dollar industrial market.

Key Takeaways

• Berkeley Lab pioneers magnet research for particle accelerators since 1930s.
• Permanent magnets enable compact, energy‑free insertion devices for light sources.
• Superconducting magnets provide high fields with zero resistive loss, crucial for colliders.
• Protecting brittle superconductors from quench‑induced damage is a major challenge.
• Falling high‑temperature superconductor costs could trigger a market explosion.

Summary

The interview with Soren Prestemon, deputy director of accelerator technology at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, outlines the lab’s century‑long leadership in magnet research, from Ernest Lawrence’s cyclotron to today’s US magnet development program.

Berkeley’s current portfolio spans permanent‑magnet undulators—pioneered by Klaus Halbach—and cutting‑edge superconducting magnets that power upgrades like the LHC’s Magnum 310 low‑temperature superconductor, enabling higher luminosity and future collider concepts such as muon or next‑generation proton machines. A core technical hurdle is quench protection: a tiny heat spike can drive a brittle superconductor out of its loss‑free state, releasing stored energy that can destroy the magnet.

Prestemon cites concrete examples: the LCS‑2 high‑energy upgrade, permanent‑magnet insertion devices for the Advanced Light Source, and new diagnostics to detect precursors of quench events. He also highlights the rapid three‑fold cost reduction of REBCO high‑temperature superconductors over six years, driven by fusion startups, positioning the technology for broader adoption.

If superconducting material costs fall below a critical threshold, compact permanent‑magnet light sources and affordable high‑field accelerators could become mainstream, reshaping high‑energy physics research, medical imaging, and industrial applications while spurring a new market for advanced magnet systems.

Original Description

Magnets are essential across scientific applications, particularly in particle physics and in light sources. At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Soren Prestemon leads cutting-edge research in magnet technology as the director of the Berkeley Center for Magnet Technology and the U.S. Magnet Development Program.

Featuring:

Soren Prestemon, division deputy for technology at Berkeley Lab’s Accelerator Technology and Applied Physics Division, and director of the Berkeley Center for Magnet Technology and the U.S. Magnet Development Program.

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