From 26th to 28th September 2016, Oxford Materials hosted the first European Student Divertor Research Workshop. 19 attendees from 10 institutes across Europe discussed topics relevant to the divertor region of fusion reactors. The agenda covered the full range from state-of-the-art plasma physics to manufacturing and testing components and new engineering concepts. One of the key outcomes was the bringing together of young researchers who will one day be working together to make fusion a viable energy source. Students from the Fusion CDT were involved in organising the event, as well as presenting posters and speaking about their research

Highlights of the event included Tilmann Lunt, IPP Garching, presenting on the new upper divertor on ASDEX-U that will allow for a range of new divertor configurations, alongside Tom Barrett, CCFE, explaining the challenges in engineering a tungsten divertor as a heat sink with currently available materials. Overall the workshop was a great success with many attendees expressing an interest in attending a similar event in the future.