DAVID PACE

Most of my career has been dedicated to the development of fusion energy. The year 2020, while full of unique suffering and challenges, saw great advances in the U.S. approach to fusion research. The entire U.S. fusion community completed a years-long effort to create a roadmap for how we can best push this field forward. The final version of that plan will be available on US Fusion and Plasmas, and the Draft Report is already available... My part of this research effort is to improve the operational performance of the DIII-D National Fusion Facility. This is necessary in order to both extract the best research output from existing U.S. facilities, and to be prepared for the design and construction of a major new facility that will catapult this energy technology forward.