Richard Dendy

Biography

Professor Richard Dendy graduated in Physics (Class I) from Merton College, Oxford University. After completing Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at Peterhouse, Cambridge University, he returned to Oxford where he obtained his doctorate in theoretical plasma physics supervised by the late Dirk ter Haar. In 1983, he joined the staff of the nuclear fusion research programme at Culham in Oxfordshire, working for the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority in conjunction with Euratom. He has led Theoretical Plasma Physics there since 1995, publishing 140 refereed journal articles, writing a textbook and editing another. In 1997, Richard’s association with Warwick University began with his appointment as Honorary Professor of Physics. A series of research projects in collaboration with Professor Sandra Chapman’s growing Space and Astrophysics Group led in 2006 to the formation of Warwick University’s Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics (CFSA), with substantial financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and close links to UKAEA Culham. Sandra and Richard are joint Directors of CFSA. In addition to his research work at Warwick and Culham, Richard is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. He serves on an Advisory Council of the Ministry of Defence, and on the Physical Sciences Strategy Advisory Team of EPSRC, and has served on the Science Board of the Institute of Physics. In 2010 Richard was appointed a Commissioner of the body that oversees the Marshall Scholarships programme for outstanding US postgraduate students in the UK, funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 2011 Richard was appointed Honorary Professor of Physics at Kyushu University in Japan, working in the Itoh Turbulence Center. He was also appointed in 2011 to the Physics Panel of the REF 2014 UK-wide university research quality evaluation programme. In 2012 Richard was elected Vice-Chair of the Plasma Physics Division of the European Physical Society. Here his roles include links to the American Physical Society, and he chaired the committee that selected the inaugural winner of the APS-EPS Landau-Spitzer Prize.

Research Interest

Fusion, space and astrophysical plasma physics: Modelling and interpreting transport and turbulence data, Energetic particle populations - their creation and consequences, Generic questions at the interface of different subfields of plasma physics, Links to the science of complex systems.