Bio
Troy Carter was named Director of Fusion Energy Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in July 2024. Carter oversees the division’s world-class technical capabilities in plasma physics, fusion materials and fusion technologies. He is responsible for developing major projects such as the Materials Plasma Exposure eXperiment, or MPEX, and ORNL’s research contributions to the international ITER experiment.
Carter was previously a Professor of Physics at the University of California, Los Angeles for 22 years. There Carter was the Director of the Basic Plasma Science Facility (BaPSF), a national collaborative research facility for plasma science supported by DOE and NSF. He was also the Director of the Plasma Science and Technology Institute (PSTI), an organized research unit at UCLA. His research into waves, instabilities, turbulence and transport in magnetically confined plasmas is motivated by the desire to understand processes in space and astrophysical plasmas as well as by the need to develop carbon-free electricity generation via nuclear fusion. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and is a recipient of the APS DPP John Dawson Excellence in Plasma Physics Research Award.
Carter has served on a range of advisory committees for the plasma physics and fusion research communities, including the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, the Scientific Advisory Board (Fachbeirat) for the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, and Program Advisory Committees for the DIII-D and Alcator C-Mod tokamaks and the NSF Frontier Center for Magnetic Self Organization. Carter served on the NASEM Committee for the 2020 Decadal Assessment of Plasma Science and led the DOE FESAC Long Range Planning process that resulted in the 2021 report “Powering the Future: Fusion and Plasmas.” He was awarded the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award in recognition of his fusion community leadership contributions.
Professional Experience
- Director, Fusion Energy Division, ORNL (2024-present)
- Director, Basic Plasma Science Facility, UCLA (2017-2024)
- Director, Plasma Science and Technology Institute, UCLA (2016-2024)
- Professor of Physics, UCLA (2011-2024)
- Vice Chair, Resources, Department of Physics & Astronomy (2014-2017)
- Associate Professor of Physics, UCLA (2008-2011)
- Assistant Professor of Physics, UCLA (2002-2008)
- DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA (2001-2002)
Awards
- Ronald & Jeryl Abelmann Award for Teaching Excellence (2023)
- Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award (2021)
- Fellow, American Physical Society (2014)
- APS DPP Distinguished Lecturer (2009-2013)
- NSF CAREER Award (2006)
- APS John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research (2002)
DOE Junior Faculty Development Award in Plasma Physics (2002)
Education
- PhD, Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University (2001)
- BS, Physics, North Carolina State University (1995)
- BS, Nuclear Engineering, North Carolina State University (1995)