Jozef Ongena

Jozef Ongena is the Research Director at the Laboratory for Plasma Physics at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels. He earned his PhD in Physics from the University of Ghent (Belgium) in 1985. Specialising in nuclear fusion research, he has led experiments on major fusion devices, including the Joint European Torus. He currently leads a collaborative effort with the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics on ion cyclotron resonance heating of the Wendelstein 7-X Stellarator. Dr Ongena has authored key review papers on magnetic fusion research.

He has served on the Board of the Plasma Physics Division of the European Physical Society (EPS), chaired the Energy Group of EPS, and is a member of the Plasma Physics Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). He also serves on the Board of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. As President of the Belgian Physical Society, he established three EPS Historic Sites in Belgium and founded EPS Young Mind sections at several Belgian universities. His work earned him the EPS Achievement Award in 2016 and the Landau-Spitzer Prize in 2018 for developing a new heating technique for fusion plasmas.