HSH Prince Albert II meets the ITER Monaco Post Doctoral Fellows

The ITER Monaco Postdoctoral Fellows are:

Sophie Carpentier, from France, who will work on Plasma-Wall Interaction Physics; American Matthew Jewell will work on Superconducting Magnets; Junghee Kim, from Korea, will work on Plasma Diagnostics; Russian Evgeny Veschev, will work on Energetic Particle Physics and Axel Winter, from Germany will work on Plasma Control. 

Axel Winter expressed his excitement at working for one of the biggest scientific projects currently under construction in the world. “For me working for ITER is a real challenge. The combination of research in physics and engineering work in an international environment convinced me to apply for the Monaco fellowship. Coming from a different field of physics, the fellowship will offer me the possibility to gain experience in fusion research and together with my background in accelerator physics to contribute to the success of ITER."

ITER Director General Kaname Ikeda commented: "The Partnership Agreement with the Principality of Monaco has allowed us to start developing an important aspect of the ITER Project - the training of the next generation of fusion scientists and engineers. We have been fortunate to attract a very talented group of applicants from across the ITER Members' communities.” 

The Partnership Agreement that set up these five Postdoctoral Fellowships together with the establishment of an annual Conference on ITER related research was signed in January 2008. The Principality contributes 400,000 € for five Fellowships every two years over a ten year period, enabling five young scientists from the seven ITER Member countries or from the Principality of Monaco to be trained over two years in research areas related to the ITER project. 

David Campbell, a senior scientist in the ITER Organization who was involved in the selection process said: “It has been a great pleasure interacting with these young people during the selection procedure and appreciating the inspiration they derive from ITER's goal of demonstrating the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy."

BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS RELEASE 

ITER will be the world's largest experimental fusion facility and is designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. Fusion is the process which powers the sun and the stars. When light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones, a large amount of energy is released. Fusion research is aimed at developing a prototype fusion power plant that is safe and reliable, environmentally responsible and economically viable, with abundant and widespread fuel resources. 

The ITER project is sited at Cadarache in the South of France. Europe will contribute almost half of the costs of its construction, while the other six Members to this joint international venture (China, Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the USA), will contribute equally to the rest.

Each Member has set up a Domestic Agency responsible for its contributions to ITER. The Domestic Agencies employ their own staff and have their own budgets, and will place contracts with suppliers to procure in-kind contributions. 

Photos can be found at: 
http://www.iter.org/press_release/2009_02/images

More information on the ITER project and fusion energy can be found on www.iter.org.

CONTACT

Neil Calder 
neil.calder@iter.org 
Tel: 00 33 (0)6 14 16 41 75