Press release from ORNL, July 11, 2024
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has named Troy A. Carter director of the Fusion Energy Division in ORNL’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate, or FFESD, effective July 1.
As division director, Carter will position ORNL as a key resource in U.S. plans for accelerating fusion energy development and evolve the lab’s world-class technical capabilities in plasma physics, fusion materials and fusion technologies. He will also be responsible for developing major projects such as the Materials Plasma Exposure eXperiment, or MPEX, and ORNL’s research contributions to the international ITER experiment.
“Troy brings a wealth of fusion energy knowledge and leadership that I am confident will advance the lab’s fusion energy strategy and strengthen ORNL’s status as a world leader in fusion research,” Mickey Wade, associate lab director for the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate, said. “He is an active, influential member of the fusion community who will be a fantastic steward of ORNL’s mission to develop environmentally friendly fusion energy solutions.”
Carter comes to ORNL from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he served as a professor of physics and director of the Basic Plasma Science Facility, a national collaborative research facility for plasma science supported by DOE and the National Science Foundation. He was director of the Plasma Science and Technology Institute, an organized research unit at UCLA. Carter also led the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee Long Range Planning process that produced the 2021 report, “Powering the Future: Fusion and Plasmas.”
Carter holds bachelor of science degrees in physics and nuclear engineering from North Carolina State University and a doctorate in astrophysical sciences from Princeton University. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a recipient of the APS Division of Plasma Physics John Dawson Award for excellence in plasma physics research.
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