Stephanie Diem's research interests are in the area of experimental plasma physics for fusion energy development with an emphasis on the validation of numerical models with experimental data. Her research focuses on utilizing radio frequency (RF) waves to heat and drive current in magnetically confined plasmas, having led and contributed to experimental research on a variety of magnetic confinement devices. Diem's current research is focused on electron Bernstein wave (EBW) heating and current drive experiments on the Pegasus-III Experiment at UW-Madison as well as domestic and international collaborations on RF injection in magnetically confined fusion plasmas. 

Diem received her Ph.D. in Plasma Physics from Princeton University where she studied electron Bernstein wave emission and mode conversion physics on the National Spherical Tokamak Experiment at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Prior to joining UW-Madison, Diem was a research and development scientist in the Fusion Energy Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and spent two years on long-term assigments at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility at General Atomics in San Diego, CA.