About

Our Purpose

The Cui Lab is a University of Virginia research group centered on high-fidelity computational plasma science for electric propulsion and space applications.

Our research is built around a simple idea: the microscopic motion of charged particles can determine the macroscopic performance, lifetime, and spacecraft-integration behavior of electric-propulsion systems. We use fully kinetic computational approaches to expose those dynamics with as little numerical ambiguity as practical.

The lab's scientific foundation spans spacecraft electric propulsion, space environment, plasma physics and engineering, computational plasma physics, and high-performance computing.