Mickey R Wade

Mickey R Wade is Associate Laboratory Director for the Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), appointed in April 2023. Previously, he served as ORNL's Fusion Energy Division Director and held leadership positions at General Atomics for 15 years, including Deputy Director of Magnetic Fusion Energy and DIII-D program director. He was an ORNL senior scientist from 1994-2005.

Education:

• Bachelor's in Nuclear Science and Engineering, Virginia Tech
• Master's and PhD in Nuclear Engineering, Georgia Tech

Research focuses on:

• Tokamak optimization and advanced plasma scenarios
• Fusion materials science and nuclear fuel cycles
• Plasma disruption mitigation and impurity transport
• International collaboration through ITER and global tokamak projects

His 300+ publications show consistent focus on plasma stability and reactor engineering, with recent articles (2019-2022) addressing tokamak optimization for fusion energy. Earlier work (2001-2004) explored impurity transport and plasma rotation.

Awards include:

• American Physical Society Fellowship (2010)
• Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award (2023)

He leads ORNL's fusion/fission directorate supporting the Material Plasma Exposure eXperiment and collaborates with U.S. ITER. Serves on advisory committees for Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, KSTAR, EAST, and WEST facilities.