The year 2009 was a successful one for the Fusion Technology Committee in many ways. The 2009 Symposium on Fusion Engineering (SOFE) was attended by over 250 registered participants. Joining with ICOPS in 2009 went very smoothly, and we believe enhanced the experience for attendees as well as strengthened the financial and administrative aspects of the combined meeting.
We have continued the traditions of past SOFE symposia, and started at least one new one. The Fusion Technology award and Best Student Paper award were presented at the banquet. This year the winners were Dr. A. René Raffray (UC San Diego) “For his internationally recognized expertise in fusion engineering and his outstanding contributions to fusion technology, especially in the area of high heat flux components for both magnetic and inertial fusion energy” and to Mai Ichinose (Kyoto University) for her paper “Preliminary Design of High Temperature Lithium-Lead Blanket with SiC Cooling Panel.” For the first time ever, a special issue of the Transactions on Plasma Science will be produced in addition to the conference proceedings. The Guest Editors for this special issue, due for release in early 2010, are Profs. David Ruzic from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Jean Paul Allain from Purdue University. The conference proceedings were sent on CD to all registered participants, and will be posted at IEEE Xplore in the near future.
In 2009, over 40% of the attendees of SOFE traveled from abroad. This number would have been even higher if not for concerns over the A(H1N1) flu virus that were high during the weeks preceding the conference. In response to the growing international interest in SOFE, for the first time we have added international members to the committee. Prof. Satoshi Konishi from Kyoto University and Dr. Hans-Stephan Bosch from the Max-Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik will serve as the first non-US members. We look forward to growing international participation in the organization of SOFE, and perhaps one day hosting the meeting outside of the United States.
Planning for the 2011 SOFE is already well underway. The general chair will be Charles Neumeyer from Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, and the technical program chair will be Brad Nelson from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. As in 2009, this symposium also will be combined with ICOPS. For more information, please visit their web site at https://engineering.purdue.edu/ICOPS2011/
With the imminent construction and/or operation of major facilities such as NIF and ITER, and with growing public appreciation for the need for clean energy sources, I expect SOFE will remain healthy and perhaps grow into the future.
This year there have been some changes in the membership of the Fusion Technology Committee. New members include Brad Nelson from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Dennis Youchison from Sandia National Laboratories. For more information on the members and operation of the FTC, please visit our web site at http://aries.ucsd.edu/PUBLIC/NPSS-FT/
After 4 years as chair of the Fusion Technology Committee, the time has come to pass on the baton. I am pleased to announce that Dennis Youchison of Sandia National Laboratories will replace me starting in January 2010. I wish Dennis the best of luck and look forward to serving IEEE in other capacities in the future.
Mark Tillack, Chair of the Fusion Technology Technical Committee, can be reached at the University of California, San Diego, 458A EBU-II, 9500 Gilman Drive, MC 0417, La Jolla, CA 92093-0417 USA: Phone: +1 858 534 7897; Fax: +1 858 822 2120; E-mail: mtillack@ucsd.edu
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