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In memoriam
Arun Srivastava, former ITER Council Chair
In memoriam | Arun Srivastava, former ITER Council Chair
Some very sad news reached ITER and the broader fusion community on Wednesday 18 August: Arun Srivastava, who had served as the sixth Chair of the ITER Council from January 2018 until the end of 2019, had passed away that very morning.
A longtime contributor to ITER, Arun Srivastava served as the sixth Chair of the ITER Council from January 2018 until the end of 2019. He passed away on 18 August.
A longtime contributor to ITER, Arun experienced first-hand every step of the project's progress, representing India on the ITER Council and its many sub-committees before becoming Council Chair in 2018. As Chair, he will be remembered for his energy, infectious enthusiasm and reliability.
Arun was both an engineer and an administrator. A chemist by training, he graduated in 1983 from the Laxminarayan Institute of Technology (LIT), Nagpur, India, and later obtained a postgraduate diploma in Management Studies from Mumbai University.
A graduate of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) training school, he was involved in the design, construction and commissioning of the Manuguru Heavy Water Plant, and joined India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in the late 1990s.
In 2010, he was appointed Secretary of the Atomic Energy Commission, the highest policy-making body for atomic energy in India.
Arun saw nuclear energy as a way to provide "a better quality of life to India's citizens," contributing not only to electricity production but also, through the development and deployment of nuclear and radiation technologies and their applications, to better health care and improved food production.
Arun will also be remembered for being one of the driving forces behind the organization of the 2019 Vigyan Samagam project—a travelling exhibition that showcased India's contributions to cutting-edge research megaprojects, including ITER, worldwide.
At ITER, and in many other places, he will be deeply missed.
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