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​The Governing Board of the European Domestic Agency for ITER Fusion for Energy (F4E) has decided to appoint Dr Pietro Barabaschi as Acting Director of F4E with effect from 1 March 2015 until a new Director takes up duties. The Governing Board has also agreed to initiate the process to recruit a new Director.

Dr Barabaschi will replace the outgoing Director, Professor Henrik Bindslev, who will leave F4E on 28 February 2015. Professor Bindslev has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Southern Denmark.

The Chair of the Governing Board, Mr Stuart Ward, expressed, on behalf of its members, his gratitude to Professor Henrik Bindslev for the vision and leadership that he has demonstrated as the Director of F4E, which manages Europe's contribution to ITER and the Broader Approach projects with Japan.

Dr Barabaschi has been head of F4E's Broader Fusion Development Department at Garching, Germany, since 2008. An electrical engineer, he started his career in the JET project. In 1992 he joined the ITER Joint Central Team in San Diego and by 2006 he was the deputy to the Project Leader as well as head of the Design Integration Division of the ITER International Team at Garching.

See the original story on the F4E website.

With a lecture on the subject of "The Fusion Roadmap and the challenges of the ITER era," Francesco Romanelli completed his tenure as EFDA Leader and EFDA Associate Leader for JET on 28 November.   As EFDA and JET Leader and interim Programme Manager during the first months of EUROfusion, Francesco Romanelli was the driving force behind the European Fusion Roadmap and had played a key role in re-definition of the fusion research programme in the European Commission research and innovation program Horizon 2020.   In his talk, he briefly reviewed the history of fusion research since the 1960s. Looking back on his time at JET, he made the audience smile when he pointed out that "the average life-time of a JET director was either seven months or seven years. I can claim to have stayed the longest—seven years AND seven months."   He finished by thanking the many individuals and groups who made the roadmap and the successes in JET happen. Steve Cowley, Director of CCFE, reminded the audience of Francesco Romanelli's scientific career in theoretical fusion science and his papers which are still highly important. "I have an enormous respect for Francesco, he said". "Fusion owes him a great deal."   EUROfusion Programme Manager Tony Donné, paid respect to the tremendous amount of work which had been done under Francesco's leadership.   Read the full article on the EUROfusion website.   -- Francesco Romanelli poses with family members at the farewell event.

​For the third consecutive year, young scientists involved with ITER Project implementation from Russia's major research centres were invited to the Russian Domestic Agency in the framework of the 57th Scientific Conference of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).

Academician Evgeny Velikhov, ITER Council member and president of the Kurchatov Institute, gave the opening, stressing that "ITER is not only a scientific facility; it is also a technological platform that will provide the basis for fusion energy in the future."

Participants heard reports on R&D and manufacturing progress for ITER key components, including diagnostic systems (Budker Institute, Novosibirsk; MIPT, Dolgoprudnyj; TRINITI, Troitsk; Kurchatov Institute, Moscow), blanket modules (Efremov Institute, Saint Petersburg; Dollezhal Institute, Moscow), and high-temperature testing of in-vessel components (Efremov Institute, Saint Petersburg; MEPhI, Moscow).

Evgeny Velikhov concluded the conference by expressing confidence that "sooner or later humanity will certainly come to fusion."

 

​Science writer Daniel Clery visited the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) recently to talk about his book on the history of fusion, A Piece of the Sun.

The book tells the story of the quest for fusion energy, from the discovery of nuclear fusion as the Sun's power source in the early 20th century through to the latest advances in magnetic and laser fusion research as the glittering prize of near-endless energy gets closer. It is a compelling account of the ups and downs of the research, the events and personalities involved, and the science of fusion. Daniel gave a lecture at CCFE on the "Many Faces of Fusion," based on the book. View the conference and interview on the CCFE website.