Dennis Whyte

Dennis Whyte is Co-Founder of Rutherford Energy Ventures LLC, the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering at MIT and a professor in the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. A recognized leader in fusion research, Professor Whyte's research in the magnetic confinement of plasmas sets us on an innovative and faster path to producing fusion energy. He has published over 380 articles on a wide range of fusion science and technology. He has been one of the leaders of the SPARC project, a collaboration between Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which he co-founded, and MIT to design and build a high-field fusion device to demonstrate net energy production for the first time.

Many of the technology approaches underpinning the high-field approach to fusion energy, including SPARC, were formed over the last decade in his MIT fusion design class: utilizing magnets from high-temperature superconductors, demountable magnets for modular assembly and maintenance, and liquid immersion blankets for robust energy removal. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, has served on committees for the National Academies and Royal Society, and has won the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award and the 2013 Nuclear Fusion Prize. He previously served as Department Head of Nuclear Science and Engineering and Director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, both at MIT.