As many in our fusion community are likely aware, longtime Fusion Power Associates (FPA) president Steve Dean has decided to take a much deserved step into retirement. Congratulations and thank you Steve! As Steve transitions into his President Emeritus role, Farhat Beg and I are excited to guide this vital organization. With your collaboration and help, we will keep FPA strong, thriving, and serving the fusion community.

Looking ahead, Farhat and I are humbled to serve in the following roles:
Michael Campbell - FPA President
Farhat Beg - FPA Senior Vice President

Going forward, FPA will retain its independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) status registered in California. It is interesting to note that Steve, Nick Krall, and Al Trivelpiece formed FPA in San Diego in 1979! What's new is that the official home of Fusion Power Associates (FPA) is now the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego), which is the academic home of both of us. The FPA website remains in use at the same web address for now, though updates will be coming. The FPA Board has approved all of these changes.

UC San Diego's involvement with FPA follows the campus' commitment to support and grow the international fusion community. Just last year, the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering launched the Fusion Engineering Institute.

We would like to take a moment to step back and thank Steve Dean for the incredible contributions he has made to our national and international fusion power community. Scientific and technical advances and the need for baseload energy have clearly motivated the interest and funding from both public and private sources for fusion today, but organizations such as FPA under the leadership of Steve and colleagues have also made major contributions. Over the years and decades, the FPA has kept us connected and has fostered meaningful dialog regarding foundational and collaborative fusion research, education, engineering and commercialization.

In addition, we'd like to thank and recognize the contributions of many people who have worked behind the scenes over the years to make FPA a valuable resource for our community. This includes the FPA Board (both past and present) and particularly Ruth Watkins who also recently retired from FPA and now holds the honorary title of FPA VP for Administration and Finance Emeritus.

Baseline administrative support for FPA is now being provided by the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, under the guidance of FPA Senior VP Farhat Beg, with contributions from a team led by Arnetha Whitmore, Assistant Dean for the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, who is temporarily serving as FPA Treasurer.

Albert P. Pisano, the Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering, is enthusiastic about our efforts to guide the FPA into the future. He sees this work as complementary to the UC San Diego Fusion Engineering Institute, which is working to accelerate timelines for practical rollout of fusion energy at scale. To do this, the institute brings together people in industry, government and academia to identify and solve the toughest technical and workforce challenges holding back cost-competitive fusion energy. Our colleague, UC San Diego mechanical engineering professor Javier E. Garay, leads this institute.

Soon, we will be sharing additional programming details and a registration link for the 46th annual FPA Annual Meeting and Symposium, which will be held December 9-10 in Washington, DC at the University of California Washington Center. We look forward to connecting directly with so many in our community!

In the meantime, let's keep the momentum going as we work together to turn the promise of fusion power into a near term reality.

Our new (and now current) FPA email is fusionassoc@ucsd.edu

Steve Dean can be contacted directly at stevedean0512@aol.com

Please feel free to communicate this notice to all of your fusion colleagues.

Sincerely,

Mike and Farhat

Michael Campbell
FPA President

Farhat Beg
FPA Senior Vice President

Michael Campbell is a Professor of Practice in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Campbell is a Co-Director of the UC San Diego Fusion Engineering Institute. Campbell has spent over 45 years in fusion research and has had senior positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and General Atomics. He recently retired as Director of the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

Farhat Beg is a Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering where he directs the Center for Matter Under Extreme Conditions. Beg is a Co-Director of the UC San Diego Fusion Engineering Institute. He holds the Shao-Chi and Lily Lin Chancellor's Endowed Chair in Engineering Science at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.