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UW-Madison Engineer to Head US DOE Fusion
Energy Office
Madison, WI, 1 March 2007: The U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) has named a University of
Wisconsin-Madison engineering
professor to lead its Office of Fusion Energy Science (OFES),
located within the DOE Office of Science. The OFES oversees United States
research in fusion energy, plasma physics and high-energy-density physics.
Steenbock Professor of Engineering Physics
Raymond Fonck formally assumed the role of OFES associate director today (March
1).
Fonck will direct a large portion of his efforts
toward ITER, a seven-member international project designed to demonstrate the
scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. Preparation of the
construction site in Cadarache, France, began in early 2007.
The international experiment presents U.S. fusion
researchers with exciting domestic opportunities that parallel ITER, says Fonck.
"The responsibility of the Office of Fusion Energy Science is to work with the
fusion community to guide that research and to maintain a competitive edge as we
head into a new era," he says.
A major funding agency for basic plasma physics
research in the United States, the office also directs a wide range of research
activities on domestic magnetic fusion facilities. It supports large programs in
theory and computation to support the development of fusion energy science and
is one of the U.S. agencies that supports the emerging field of
high-energy-density physics.
As head of OFES, Fonck will initiate discussions
that eventually will guide U.S. fusion research priorities, among which are
basic plasma physics and science. "It's those possibilities and the excitement
of trying to sort it out that makes it a challenge," he says. "We think we can
really make a difference."
Fonck will take a research leave of absence from
UW-Madison, where he directs Pegasus, the third-largest fusion-research
experiment of its kind in the world. A low-aspect-ratio toroidal fusion
experiment, Pegasus tests basic theoretical ideas about magnetic confinement
geometry and the ability to confine plasmas at very high pressure.
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