Raymond John Fonck joined the Department of Energy in March 2007 to serve as Associate Director of the Fusion Energy Sciences Program of the DOE Office of Science. In that role, he will lead the fusion science program as it moves to exploring the burning plasma regime in the ITER international experiment. The program also supports investigations of magnetically confined plasmas, basic plasma science, high energy density laboratory physics, and fusion engineering sciences. Before coming to DOE, Dr. Fonck was a professor in the Department of Engineering Physics and the Steenbock Professor in the Physical Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978 (atomic physics and laser spectroscopy). He was at Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory from 1978 through 1989, where he was Deputy Head of the PBX-M Tokamak project and head of the spectroscopy group on the TFTR experimental team. He joined the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at Wisconsin in 1989.  He headed the Pegasus Toroidal Experiment and directed collaborative experiments on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and served as President of the University Fusion Association for 1999-2000. He was chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2002 APS Topical Conference on High Temperature Plasma Diagnostics, and has served on APS/DPP organizing committees. He has been a member of several Program Advisory Committees for large fusion science experiments, and served on the FESAC subpanel for U.S. participation in ITER. He also served as a member on the NRC Fusion Science Assessment Committee, and was co-chair of the NRC Burning Plasma Assessment Committee. Most recently, he has been a member of the National Research Council Board on Physics and Astronomy, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Division of Plasma Physics. Prior to his appointment to DOE, he also was serving as the Director of the U.S. Burning Plasma Organization and Chief Scientist of the ITER Project Office. His research has been in experimental studies of high beta plasmas in toroidal geometries, plasma turbulence, and high-temperature plasma diagnostic development.  He was awarded the 1999 APS Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research for his work on measurements of turbulence in high temperature plasmas. He was also awarded the Fusion Power Associates 2004 Fusion Leadership Award. He is the author of over 180 articles in peer-reviewed publications on plasma turbulence, plasma confinement and stability, atomic physics, applied optics, and plasma measurement techniques.

Last Reviewed: 3/14/2007