About Fusion Energy Partners
The team at Fusion Energy Partners are internationally recognised experts with experience at Senior level covering the full development cycle from experiment design, construction, commissioning, operation, analysis and decommissioning of fusion systems plus supporting technology development, materials and programme management capability.
Chris’s background is in industrial R&D, new product development, product management, business development and business management, working internationally across a range of industries including power-generation, high-tech manufacturing and fusion energy.
With a background in engineering and manufacturing, combined with 35 years working in senior customer-facing techno-commercial roles, Chris brings to FEP a successful track record of setting up and managing complex, bespoke consultant-based services to clients operating in a wide variety of sectors, including fusion energy.
Since joining UKAEA Chris has delivered successful consultancy solutions across a wide range of technical disciplines supporting the ITER programme, private fusion and sectors adjacent to fusion.
As Managing Director, Chris will ensure that FEP achieves a combination of professional integrity and agility to deliver high-value profitable services to FEP’s clients.
Martin has over 45 years of experience in fusion research and the leadership of large and complex R&D organisations, facilities and projects. He joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at Culham in 1978 to research heating and current drive schemes for fusion plasmas and then led the microwave heating and plasma interpretation departments. From 1995 to 2000 he was also the Project Manager for the construction of the MAST device. After being project manager responsible for the preparations for UKAEA to take responsibility for the management of the Joint European Torus (JET) in 2000, he was manager of the Machine Operations department, responsible for the operation of both JET and MAST. In 2008 he became senior manager with overall responsibility for the contract between UKAEA and the European Fusion Development Agreement (which subsequently became EUROfusion) to operate JET. Subsequently he became Operations Director and then Strategy & Technology Director of UKAEA. In 2018 Martin retired from being a Director but still works for UKAEA as an advisor, including to the STEP programme.
Martin has extensive experience reviewing and advising research institutes, governments, companies and investors on a wide range of high technology activities. He was a member of the Cost and Schedule Review Committee of the Large Hadron Collider Project at CERN, a member of the ITER Technical Advisory Group, Vice-Chair of the Governing Board for Fusion for Energy (the EU Domestic Agency for ITER) and is currently a member of General Fusion’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee. He has also been involved in many machine design reviews, including W7X and ITER.
As Technical Director, Martin will ensure that Fusion Energy Partners utilises the wide-ranging expertise it has available to best meet the client’s needs.
Kurt has over thirty years of experience in scientific research and the leadership of large and complex R&D organizations, facilities, and projects. Kurt developed and led major research initiatives and facilities at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in neutron-based science, high energy density physics, inertial confinement fusion, magnetic fusion energy, plasma-based space propulsion and plasma-based manufacturing.
Kurt has held many positions since joining the Controlled Thermonuclear Research Division at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1980. Most recently, he was a key member of the Senior Management Team at Los Alamos, serving as the Director of the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE) and the Deputy Associate Laboratory Director for Experimental Physical Sciences. As the LANSCE Director, he led the Laboratory’s premier accelerator-based facility for national security, energy security, isotope production, and fundamental science research. He also directed experimental physical science research within the Physical Sciences Directorate at Los Alamos in material science and technology, nuclear physics, plasma physics, inertial confinement science, and magnetic fusion.
Kurt is presently active in providing science-based counsel to government and industry. He retains very strong connections to the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Guest Scientist. Kurt also serves as Spokesperson for the High Energy Density Physics Collaboration (HED@FAIR) at the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) under construction in Darmstadt, Germany. Other responsibilities that Kurt undertakes include serving on the Plasma Physics Advisory Committee at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, serving on the Science and Technology Advisory Committee for General Fusion and chairing the Science and Technology Advisory Council at Focused Energy GmbH. From 2015 to 2017, he was an Extreme Matter Institute (EMMI) Guest Professor at the Technische Universität in Darmstadt, Germany.
Kurt’s research accomplishments include the experimental and theoretical investigation of magnetically and inertially confined plasmas for controlled thermonuclear fusion, intense particle accelerators, plasma accelerators, plasma-based space propulsion, and high-energy-density physics.
Tom has over 45 years of experience of fusion research and large, complex projects. His broad expertise has been built through working on the Superconducting Levitron, the CLEO device (which in turn he operated as an RFP, stellarator and tokamak), the Compass tokamak, and a year at the DIII-D tokamak in San Diego. In addition to contributing to the design of the START and MAST spherical tokamaks and chairing the MAST Advisory Committee, Tom has served on several dozen international engineering and physics design reviews for fusion devices including W7X, K-STAR and ITER.
After 5 years in Dounreay managing the Design Services Department for nuclear fission plant decommissioning, Tom returned to UKAEA at Culham as Chief Engineer of JET and later Chief Technologist, focussing on fusion reactor studies. Since retiring from UKAEA in 2014, he has continued to support the international fusion community as a consultant and lecturer, chairing the ITER Machine Protection Panel for several years and extensively participating in the PPPL NSTX-U Recovery Project reviews. Tom has also undertaken comprehensive design reviews of HL-2M at SWIP and Compass-U at IPP Prague alongside activities to advise STEP, DEMO and companies in the private fusion sector. He is currently a consultant for Proxima Fusion.
Andrew has extensive experience of working on and managing large high technology projects. Initially he spent 15 years at CERN performing particle physics experiments before joining the UKAEA in 2000 to focus on fusion research. At UKAEA, Andrew led the fusion science programme for many years, championing the UK’s spherical tokamak fusion programme, and became the Director of Tokamak Science and MAST Upgrade.
Through his roles, Andrew helped to guide the UKAEA’s strategic scientific direction and the delivery of MAST Upgrade, an especially pertinent project that provides the building blocks for the UK’s STEP fusion powerplant project. Andrew led the team which received the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Major Project Award in 2021 for the successful delivery, commissioning, and operation of MAST Upgrade.
Brian has over 40 years of international experience in fusion research and leading large complex programmes. After his D.Phil. on ‘Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating in CLEO Stellarator’, which was completed in partnership with the UKAEA, Brian spent 2 years as a research scientist on Alcator-C at M.I.T. Brian then joined UKAEA where he expanded his knowledge of tokamak physics and engineering, especially around high-power microwave heating and current drive systems, plasma-wave interactions and plasma start-up.
In 1989, Brian was seconded to General Atomics in the USA to conduct studies of plasma start-up on DIII-D, which directly supported ITER. After his return, Brian led the COMPASS-D experimental programme and from 2001 to 2013 was in charge of the MAST programme at UKAEA.
Brian has extensively supported the international fusion community, having served on the European Commission’s Fusion Programme Committee and on the Programme Advisory Committees for Alcator C-Mod, NSTX and KSTAR. He also chaired the International Programme Advisory Committee for the Warwick University Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics and enjoyed two spells as the Chair of the Executive Committee for the International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration Agreement on Spherical Tori. From 2018 to 2021, Brian was Advisor to the Research Programme Director at UKAEA.
Elizabeth has over 37 years of experience in fusion research and leading complex facilities and projects. She joined the Particle Beam Department of UKAEA in 1987 after completing a PhD in industrial applications of low temperature gas discharges. Initially working on applications of particle beams for industry, Elizabeth led programmes to design and build bespoke systems for various customers.
From 2000, Elizabeth was involved in operation and development of the neutral beam injectors on JET, eventually leading the JET neutral beam team in delivering reliable and flexible heating and current drive within the engineering limits of the machine. This resulted in the founding of the Technology Programme within UKAEA, which she led until 2020. This multi-disciplinary programme, which combines materials, manufacturing, neutronics, material activation and power plant design, makes a significant contribution to the EU DEMO programme. To ensure an emphasis on industrial participation within the Technology Programme, Elizabeth founded the UKAEA’s Fusion Technology Facility at Rotherham, Yorkshire.
Elizabeth has also actively supported international fusion development, including acting as a member of the Fusion for Energy Programme Advisory Committee and the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference Programme Committee, chairing the 27th Conference in 2018. She received the IEEE Fusion Technology Award in 2021 and the UK Magnetics Society Lifetime Contribution Award in 2022.
Tim has over 40 years’ experience in fusion research, with roles in the development, implementation, and operation of major sub-systems of JET. With a focus on plasma heating and fuelling systems Tim also participated extensively in the JET scientific programme, including the development of plasma scenarios for high fusion performance. He led large projects to enhance neutral beam systems and associated large high-voltage power supplies, and on technical preparations for operation with tritium. He also contributed to the design process for ITER neutral beams, including instigation of various study contracts by UKAEA, and as a member of ITER design reviews.
Tim held senior UKAEA management positions, as Tokamak Operations Department Manager covering all JET and MAST plasma heating and fuelling systems, power supplies, magnet coils, and ancillary plant, and in 2011 took over the role of senior manager for the JET operating contract. In 2018, he became advisor to the UKAEA Chief Executive Officer with responsibility for updating the JET Lifetime Plan for decommissioning, exploring alternative options including reduction of the quantity of intermediate level waste through de-tritiation, as well as exploring the potential for facility repurposing.
Tim has served as editorial board member for the journal Nuclear Fusion, with focus on the journal’s technology content, making use of his experience working at the interface of fusion physics and technology.
