Alberto Loarte elected Fellow

Loarte was nominated by the APS Division of Plasma Physics (DPP). In the Fellowship citation he is recognized for "seminal contributions to the understanding of phenomena controlling thermal and particle fluxes to material surfaces in magnetically confined systems including plasma detachment, edge-localized modes, and their control."

The APS Fellowship Program recognizes members who may have made advances in physics through original research and publication, or made significant innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology. They may also have made significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service and participation in the activities of the Society.

Fellowship is a distinct honour signifying recognition by one's professional peers. Each year, no more than 0.5 percent of the Society's membership (excluding student members) is recognized by their peers for election to the status of Fellow of the American Physical Society.

The team Loarte leads at the ITER Organization is responsible for developing the ITER Research Plan, the Plasma Control System and associated algorithms, and building a world class integrated modelling and analysis infrastructure, the Integrated Modelling and Analysis Suite. The team also actively coordinates physics R&D activities to support the ITER Research Plan with the fusion communities of the ITER Members through the International Tokamak Physics Activities (ITPA), the ITER Scientist Fellow Network, and the Monaco-ITER Postdoctoral Fellowship Program.

Loarte earned a PhD in Atomic and Nuclear Physics from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain, and carried out his PhD and postdoctoral research at the Joint European Torus (JET). He started his long-term association with ITER at that time when he was appointed member of the ITER Physics Expert Group on Divertor Modelling and Databases in 1994. After that, he joined the EFDA-Close Support Unit at the Max Planck Institut für Plasmaphysik in Garching, Germany, where he was responsible for the EFDA Technology Programme in the area of plasma-wall interactions for ITER. In 2008, he joined the ITER Organization's Science Division and continued his involvement with the ITPA as co-Chair of the Edge Plasma and Pedestal Physics and Transport and Confinement topical groups.

Loarte is co-author of 762 papers in peer-reviewed journals, which have been cited 20,245 times, and has played a leading role in the development of the edge plasma physics basis behind the design of the ITER Tokamak.

The full list of 2021 APS Fellows can be consulted here.