US Domestic Agency team completed

A 12-member team of scientists and engineers has been chosen to manage the United States' contribution to ITER. The Team will be headed by Dr. Ned Sauthoff, who had a distinguished career at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, including a period as US ITER´s planning officer for 18 months before becoming US ITER Project Manager in February. As US ITER Project Manager, Sauthoff will direct all non-governmental aspects of the US involvement with the ITER project. "This team will help chart the nation´s course for one of the largest energy-science projects in history," Sauthoff said.

The U.S. ITER project team members are:

• Dr. Ned Sauthoff, Project Manager, who has joined ORNL after completing a distinguished career at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, where he served as U.S. ITER´s planning officer for 18 months before becoming US ITER Project Manager in February. A leading coordinator of international fusion research activities, he headed PPPL´s Offsite Research Department, which supports fusion research collaborations around the world. He is a former president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers-USA.



• Mr. Carl Strawbridge, Deputy Project Manager, of ORNL, who served as Deputy Project Manager for the Department of Energy´s $1.4 billion Spallation Neutron Source at ORNL. His over 25 years of technical project management and industrial engineering experience includes top leadership positions in several US Navy nuclear-capable shipyards.



• Mr. Brad Nelson, Engineering Manager, of ORNL, group leader in Fusion Energy Division and principal developer for projects such as the Quasi-Poloidal Stellarator at ORNL; the High Power Prototype antenna for the Joint European Torus; and the National Compact Stellarator Experiment at ORNL and PPPL.



• Mr. Jeff Geouque, Project Procurement Director, of ORNL, currently the manager for the SNS procurement group and worked on international agreements in technology transfer at Argonne National Laboratory.



• Dr. John Miller, Magnet Systems Team Leader, who has returned to ORNL from Florida State University, where he directed the construction of the $12 million 45-Tesla Hybrid Magnet System, the highest steady state magnetic field in the world for research, at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. He also was director of the lab´s Magnet Science and Technology Department.



• Ms. Jan Berry, Cooling Water Systems Team Leader, of ORNL, a senior engineer and program manager in the Engineering Science and Technology Division, who has managed large industrial contracts, complex projects, and multi-disciplinary teams in development of prototype thermal energy recovery and electricity generation systems.



• Mr. Charles Neumeyer, Electric Power Systems Team Leader, of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) who was project engineering manager of the National Spherical Torus Experiment at PPPL, a $25M project for fusion energy research.



• Dr. Dave Johnson, Diagnostics Team Leader, of PPPL, who has served as Division Head of Diagnostic Development for PPPL experimental activities in fusion facilities around the world, and also managed diagnostic development for the National Spherical Torus Experiment and led diagnostics planning for the National Compact Stellarator Experiment, also at PPPL. He is the coordinator for US participation in diagnostic work in the International Tokamak Physics Activity.



• Mr. Mike Hechler, Blanket Shielding and Port Limiter Systems Team Leader, of ORNL, most recently senior engineer for the SNS Accelerator Systems Division, responsible for the design integration and installation of proton accelerator systems. He also designed the high energy particle detector subsystem for the DOE´s Superconducting Super Collider.



• Dr. Dave Rasmussen, Vacuum Pumping and Fueling, Ion and Electron Cyclotron Systems Team Leader, of ORNL, group leader of the Plasma Applications and Technology Group in the Fusion Energy Division. Rasmussen is a leader in U.S. projects for plasma heating, including experiments at Japan´s National Institute for Fusion Science and the German Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics.



• Mr. Don Green, Tritium Plant Exhaust Processing Manager, of Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) currently Director of Engineered Equipment and Systems at SRNL and has led development of equipment in robotics, computer modelling, electrical instrumentation and other areas. He was Chief Engineer for Tritium Facilities at Westinghouse Savannah River Company, where he oversaw enrichment, processing and compression of gaseous tritium.



• Ms. Suzanne Herron, Project Controls Manager, of ORNL, who most recently was Project Management Controls and Information Systems Manager for the SNS, playing a vital role in keeping the SNS project - a collaboration of six national laboratories - on schedule and on budget. She also headed the SNS Records Management and Document Control Program, overseeing computer software systems to support SNS business and technical data.




---