FPN07-03
Van Dam to Head Burning Plasma Org.
January 18, 2007
The U. S. Department of Energy's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences (OFES)
has named Dr. James W. Van Dam (U. Texas) as the next Director of U.S. Burning Plasma
Organization, succeeding Raymond Fonck (U. Wisconsin), effective February 1.
The announcement was made by Thomas J. Vanek, Acting Associate Director
for Fusion Energy Sciences, DOE Office of Science. Fonck is widely expected
to be named shortly to become the next head of the Office of Fusion Energy
Sciences (OFES). That office has been without a permanent head since the
retirement of Dr. N. Anne Davies in April 2006.
Dr. Van Dam is currently the Director of the Institute of Fusion Studies
at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA in
in 1979 and has been at the Institute of Fusion Studies since its inception
in 1980. He has been director of the Institute since 2003. He is a Fellow
of the American Physical Society and a member of Fusion Power Associates
Board of Directors.
He can be reached at vandam@physics.utexas.edu
The functions of the Burning Plasma Organization are described at
http://burningplasma.org