Ian Chapman (physicist)

Professor Ian Chapman, CEO of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Sir Ian Trevelyan Chapman FREng FRS FInstP is a British physicist who is the chief executive of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). On 25 February 2025, it was announced by UK Science Minister Lord Vallance that Chapman would be stepping down as CEO of UKAEA in the summer of 2025 in order to become the new CEO of UK Research and Innovation, the UK research funding agency. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]}

Education

Chapman went to school at Elizabeth College, Guernsey. He graduated from Durham University (Hild Bede College) with an M.Sci. in Mathematics and Physics in 2004. ^[6]

Chapman then joined UKAEA's Culham laboratory as a plasma physics PhD student with Imperial College London. His research focused on understanding and controlling instabilities in the plasma fuel within tokamak fusion devices. He received his PhD in 2008. ^[7]

Career

Chapman continued his plasma physics research at Culham and progressed through a number of positions in the UK fusion programme, including Head of Tokamak Science in 2014 and Fusion Programme Manager in 2015. In October 2016 he became UKAEA's Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Sir Steven Cowley. ^[8]

He has published over 110 journal papers and given 30 invited lead-author presentations at international conferences. In 2015, he became a visiting professor at Durham University. ^[9]

National and international roles

Chapman has held a number of international roles in fusion research. He was a Task Force Leader for the Joint European Torus fusion device from 2012 to 2014. He was appointed a member of the programme advisory committee for US experiment NSTX-U in 2013. He has chaired international working groups for the international fusion project ITER and led work packages within the EU fusion programme.

In April 2024, Chapman was appointed as non-executive director of the UK research funding agency, UKRI. ^[10]

Awards and honours

Chapman's research has been recognised with a number of notable awards, including:

• SET For Britain Best Early Career Physicist (2011) ^[11]
• International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Young Scientist Prize (2012) ^[12]
• Fellow of the Institute of Physics (2013) ^[5]
• Institute of Physics Clifford Paterson Medal and Prize (2013) ^[13]
• European Physical Society Early Career Prize (2014) ^[14]
• Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2022) ^[15]
• Fellow of the Royal Society (2023) ^[16]

Chapman was knighted in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to global fusion energy. ^[17]

References

1. "Professor Ian Chapman - GOV.UK". Gov.uk. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
2. "About us: Key staff". Ccfe.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
3. "Interview - Professor Ian Chapman, chief executive, UK Atomic Energy Authority". 9 November 2016. Archived from the original on 16 November 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
4. "Prof. Ian Chapman to become new CEO of the UK fusion programme". Fusenet.eu. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
5. "Professor Sir Ian Chapman appointed next CEO of UK Research and Innovation with renewed focus on economic growth". GOV.UK. Retrieved 26 February 2025.
6. "King's New Year Honours 2023". Durham University. 9 January 2023. Retrieved 13 March 2023.
7. "Science centre boss knighted in New Year Honours". Oxford Mail. 31 December 2022.
8. "News: Rising star to lead UK's fusion energy programme". www.ccfe.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
9. "Researcher pages". www.ccfe.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
10. "UKRI announces two new non-executive directors". www.ukri.org. 24 April 2024.
11. "STEM for BRITAIN 2017". www.setforbritain.org.uk. Archived from the original on 18 September 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
12. "The Young Scientist Prize | IUPAP: The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics". iupap.org. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
13. "2013 Paterson medal and prize". www.iop.org. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
14. "Press Release: 2014 EPS Early Career Prizes". European Physical Society. 24 September 2014.
15. "Professor Ian Chapman FREng". Royal Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
16. "Ian Chapman". royalsociety.org. Retrieved 14 May 2023.
17. "No. 63918". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2022. p. N2.