Events
The SOFE 2019 conference will include an exciting social program, where all conference attendees will be invited to participate. In addition to the opening reception (Sunday evening) and the conference banquet (Wednesday evening), SOFE 2019 attendees are encouraged to join the Women in Engineering luncheon on Monday, and the Young Professionals reception on Tuesday.
For the Women in Engineering luncheon, we have invited Dr. Valeria Riccardo (Head of Engineering, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) as the speaker. She is the first female Head of Engineering at PPPL and is in fusion field for more than 20 yrs. Question and Answer event with Dr. Riccardo is planned. We will also have a panel discussion to exchange ideas and provoke discussion within the community.
On Monday evening, a public Town Hall meeting was added to enable the technology community to provide input to the APS-DPP Community Planning Process and the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) to develop a 10-year strategic plan for the US fusion program. All are welcome. You need not be registered for the conference to attend. Members from the DPP-CPP Fusion Materials and Technology Program panel will outline their plans for upcoming workshops and discuss the template for advocacy white papers and the submission process. This is your opportunity to become involved in the planning process and give early feedback on the planning activity.
For the Young Professionals reception experienced staff will share their instrumental experiences to inspire and encourage young professionals to continue in fusion engineering and research. Dr. Richard Nygren of Sandia National Labs will present his findings on the changing demographics of personnel in the US fusion program, discuss new opportunities for young people and the importance of mentoring young staff.
A Town Hall meeting on the topic of “Accelerating the Development of Fusion Power” will follow immediately after the Young Professionals reception on Tuesday evening. We are pleased to have Dr. Dale Meade, retired from PPPL, lead the discussion on the critical issues leading to the development of a pilot fusion power plant. We hope to foster input from the engineering community to a strategic planning exercise currently underway by APS for the Fusion Energy Science Advisory Committee. Input from and comparison to current plans in Europe, Japan and China are welcome.
The SOFE awards banquet will occur on Wednesday evening. Participants can enjoy dinner with colleagues involved in fusion from around the world. At this event we will thank four retiring Fusion Technology Standing Committee (FTC) members for their years of service, and the FTC chair will welcome four newly elected committee members. Two Fusion Technology awards, those for 2018 and 2019, will be presented to recognize outstanding individual contributions to research and development in the field of Fusion Technology. Finalists in the SOFE2019 student paper competition will also be recognized, and a student award will be presented.
Young Professionals Reception
Dr. Richard Nygren received degrees in Material Science from MIT (BS) and Northwestern University (PhD). He is a Distinguished Member, Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories. He performs research on robust actively-cooled heat sinks for fusion energy that surround the plasma and face a very challenging environment with high heat and particle loads. His resume includes over 100 journal publications, work in national and international advisory groups, and volunteer efforts in science education. His is currently active in collaborations with General Atomics on power handling in the plasma edge. In the past, he was the PI on experiments deployed in TFTR, Tore Supra, TEXTOR and NSTX, a collaborator on liquid lithium plasma facing components and on blanket technology, a participant in fusion design studies
Title: "Fusion Technology, Wolves, Wanderings and Thoughts on Your Future"
Women in Engineering luncheon
Valeria Riccardo joined PPPL at the end of December 2016 as Head of Engineering, the largest department in the laboratory. From September 2011, Riccardo was Chief Engineer for the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, the United Kingdom’s national laboratory for fusion research, which operates the Joint European Torus (JET) and the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST). Riccardo has a Laurea (Master) in Nuclear Engineering and a Dottorato in Energetics from Politecnico di Torino, and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London, United Kingdom. Riccardo is a chartered engineer (2001) and a fellow (2011) of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering
Title:"Why Diversity?"
DPP-CPP Town Hall, Monday, June 03, 2019
7:30 pm-10:00 pm
Bluejeans link for remote participation
https://bluejeans.com/4415844099?src=calendarLink
Connecting directly from a room system?
1) Dial: 199.48.152.152 or bjn.vc
2) Enter Meeting ID: 4415844099 -or- use the pairing code
Just want to dial in on your phone?
1) +1.888.240.2560 (US Toll Free)
+1.408.317.9253 (US (Primary, San Jose))
+1.408.740.7256 (US (San Jose))
Global Numbers: https://www.bluejeans.com/premium-numbers
2) Enter Meeting ID: 4415844099
3) Press #
SOFE2019 VLT Town Hall, Tuesday, June 04, 2019
7:30 pm-11:00 pm
Bluejeans link for remote participation
https://bluejeans.com/4415844099?src=calendarLink
Connecting directly from a room system?
1) Dial: 199.48.152.152 or bjn.vc
2) Enter Meeting ID: 4415844099 -or- use the pairing code
Just want to dial in on your phone?
1) +1.888.240.2560 (US Toll Free)
+1.408.317.9253 (US (Primary, San Jose))
+1.408.740.7256 (US (San Jose))
Global Numbers: https://www.bluejeans.com/premium-numbers
2) Enter Meeting ID: 4415844099
3) Press #
Mentor Match
This program is designed to help Students and Young Professionals expand their professional networks while at the conference, gain personalized career insights, and receive guidance from senior professionals in Fusion Engineering.
Attendees can sign up to be either a mentor or mentee for the conference. Mentor Matches will be paired by technical interests and the matches will be communicated to attendees by IEEE staff before the conference start.
Mentors and mentees will then be encouraged to connect, i.e. by email or call, prior to the conference, in order to establish plans to meet-up and connect at SOFE 2019 . Meet-up plans are up to the pairs' discretion.
For a glimpse into the last SOFE conference click this SOFE 2017 link.
Photos from SOFE2017 events
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