Partners & Support

Thank you for daring with us.

The Vanderbilt Fusion Project exists because of the generosity of individuals, families, and institutions who believed in what a group of undergraduates could build. The reactor we designed and assembled, the plasma we achieved in 2025, the fusion we will achieve in 2026 — every milestone rests on their support.

Principal Support

The Office of the Chancellor
and Vanderbilt University.

In support of Vanderbilt's 150th anniversary and the Dare to Grow campaign.

We owe the foundation of this project to Vanderbilt University and the Office of the Chancellor, whose support through the V150 initiative gave a student-led research project the institutional home it needed to grow into the country's only fully student-driven nuclear reactor program.

The V150 vision — that Vanderbilt's next 150 years will be defined by daring, interdisciplinary research — is one we are proud to carry forward. Crescere aude.

Founding Benefactors

The families who made it possible.

Individuals and families whose support carried the project from concept to operating hardware. Listed in order of standing.

  1. [01]

    Suzanne and Michael Ainslie

    Founding Benefactors

    Your belief in the Vanderbilt Fusion Project — early, generous, and unwavering — made the leap from concept to hardware possible. Every student who works on the reactor owes you a thank you.

  2. [02]

    Stephanie and John Ingram

    Founding Benefactors

    The Ingram family's commitment to Vanderbilt is legendary, and we're honored to be part of that legacy. Your support has underwritten both our research ambitions and the interdisciplinary team culture that defines this project.

  3. [03]

    Hatch Investments LLC

    Founding Benefactors

    For recognizing that student-led research deserves real institutional backing — and for providing it. Your support has allowed us to move from theory to fabrication with the professional rigor the work demands.

  4. [04]

    The Pennington Family

    Founding Benefactors

    Family of Tommy Pennington, on the project since it was a few sentences in a dorm-room conversation. Your support — personal and material — is woven into everything we have built.

  5. [05]

    The Knox Family

    Founding Benefactors

    From Catherine Knox's first days as CEO to the project's operational present, the Knox family's backing has made the Vanderbilt Fusion Project possible at every critical inflection point. Thank you for believing before there was much to see.

Industry Partners

The companies who build with us.

Practitioners in commercial fusion who have donated hardware, shared technical expertise, and treated an undergraduate research project with the seriousness of a peer.

SHINE Technologies

Donated the high-voltage power supply that drives HELIOS Mk. 1 — and the technical advisory that helped us put it to work.

Visit SHINE

SHINE is one of the few companies in the world building commercial fusion-adjacent systems at scale, and their belief in this project has been transformative. Beyond the donated hardware, the SHINE team has been a continuous source of technical expertise, design review, and operational guidance — the kind of practitioner-level mentorship a student team rarely gets access to. Every plasma run inside HELIOS is, in a real sense, made possible by SHINE.

Donated · HELIOS Mk. 1 high-voltage power supply

  • General Fusion

    Industry Partner

    Technical exchange and program-level guidance from a leading magnetized target fusion company.

    General Fusion has engaged with our team as collaborators and counselors — sharing perspective from the front line of commercial fusion R&D and helping us think clearly about the path from a student-built reactor to a research platform with real outputs.

    Visit General Fusion

Institutional partners

5 Partners

Hosted lab visits, conference panels, and academic collaborations — tap a partner with ↗ to jump to that recognition moment on the team page.

How to support

Invest in the next generation of fusion researchers.

We are always building — expanding lab space, upgrading instrumentation, funding new research directions, and supporting the undergraduates who make all of it possible. If you would like to support the project, we would love to talk.

Contact our team

Gifts can be channeled through Vanderbilt University and counted toward the V150 Dare to Grow campaign. Reach out for the current sponsorship overview and tax documentation.