AI-generated summary
The advancement of fusion energy as a transformative global energy source hinges not only on scientific and industrial breakthroughs but critically on cultivating a diverse and skilled workforce. Steven Biegalski of Georgia Tech and Ralf Kaiser of the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics emphasize the urgent need for a global talent strategy to meet the enormous demand for hundreds of thousands of qualified professionals over the next decade. This strategy must encompass interdisciplinary education spanning physics, engineering, materials science, and public policy, alongside international collaboration, mobility, and training programs that include developing countries.
Biegalski highlights the gap in fusion education relative to investment, advocating for a comprehensive talent pipeline from technicians to senior researchers. He stresses the importance of international partnerships to share resources and accelerate training amid competition with other tech sectors. Kaiser adds a global south perspective, underscoring equitable access to training and applied degree programs tailored to prepare professionals for real-world challenges in emerging fusion energy markets. He calls for multi-level training not just for developers but also operators and engineers, ensuring all countries can participate in and benefit from fusion energy’s expansion.
Ultimately, the experts concur that fusion’s promise depends on coordinated global efforts in education and workforce development. Only through inclusive, collaborative, and practical training strategies worldwide will fusion energy realize its potential to sustainably transform the global energy landscape.
Two international leaders analyse how to develop a global workforce prepared to promote fusion energy, from technical training to cooperation with developing countries
If fusion energy aspires to transform the global energy system, scientific or industrial advances will not suffice. People are needed. Many. With diverse technical profiles, adaptability and vision of the future. This is what Steven Biegalski, director of the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Ralf Kaiser, program manager at the Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), defend in their speeches at the Future Trends Forum “Fusion Energy: An Energy Revolution in the Making“.
Both experts agree on a central idea: the fusion revolution needs a global talent strategy. A strategy that ranges from technical and university education to international mobility, training programmes in developing countries and the retraining of professionals from other technological sectors. The demand will be enormous: hundreds of thousands of qualified profiles worldwide in the next decade.
In this article, we explore the keys presented by Biegalski and Kaiser to build the workforce of the future, capable of making clean, safe and universal energy a reality. Because without prepared people, there will be no possible fusion.
If you want to see Steven Biegalski’s presentation, you can do so in this video:
Steven Biegalski: “Workforce for Fusion: Training Challenges and Critical Skills” #FusionForward
If you want to see Ralf Kaiser’s presentation, you can do so in this video:
Ralf Kaiser: “Capacity Driving for Fusion Energy” #FusionForward
Steven Biegalski: An Educational Roadmap for an Interdisciplinary Challenge
From the perspective of the U.S. education system, Steven Biegalski warns of a critical gap: education in fusion technologies has not kept pace with technological development or investment. More than $10 billion has gone to startups and research centers worldwide ($5.6 billion in the U.S. alone), but university programs in fusion remain underfunded.
According to Biegalski, the challenge goes beyond training new doctors: it is necessary to build a chain of talent from technicians to senior researchers. And for that, universities must adopt an interdisciplinary approach that combines physics, nuclear engineering, materials science, thermodynamics, robotics, computing and even public policies. “Fusion is not a discipline, it’s a technical ecosystem,” he says.
In addition, he warns about the competition for talent with other technological sectors such as quantum computing, aerospace or renewables. That is why he advocates a collaborative approach between countries and institutions that allows resources to be shared, mobility to be generated and to accelerate the training of professionals prepared for the industrial and regulatory challenges of this emerging technology.
Ralf Kaiser: building capacities from the global, leaving no one behind
Ralf Kaiser provides a complementary vision from the global south. At the ICTP, its mission is clear: to train scientists from developing countries so that they can contribute to – and benefit from – global technological advances. “Talent is evenly distributed in the world; the opportunity, no,” he recalls, quoting Nobel laureate Abdus Salam, founder of the center.
Kaiser insists that the fusion revolution must also be an opportunity for countries such as India, China, Indonesia and Nigeria, which will be the main demanders of new power plants in the coming decades. To this end, it proposes a training model based on applied advanced degrees, with a strong practical component, such as the master’s degree in medical physics that the ICTP has been teaching for 20 years. Its structure is clear: one year of theoretical classes, one year of practical training in hospitals. The goal is for professionals to be ready to work in environments with little infrastructure.
Applied to fusion, Kaiser advocates a multi-level approach to training: not only training technology “developers” (plasma physicists or superconductivity researchers), but also “users” and “contributors”: technicians, operators, plant engineers. “As with aviation, not everyone has to design the plane, but every country needs pilots and mechanics,” he explains.
It also highlights the urgency of action: according to its data, in the next 10 years several hundred thousand trained professionals will be needed to accompany the global deployment of the merger. To speed up this process, it offers specialized certificates, short master’s degrees, online training and regional training centers.
A Call to Action: Collaboration, Mobility and International Vision
Both speakers agree that the development of fusion talent cannot depend exclusively on local or national initiatives. A global educational roadmap is needed, supported by alliances between universities, international organizations and companies in the sector.
Steven Biegalski gives as an example the participation of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the European Nuclear Education Network (ENEN), a collaboration that has allowed exchanges and funding for joint projects between the US and Europe. “International collaborations are key to building on existing institutional capacities and accelerating program development,” he says.
For its part, Kaiser proposes that the countries that are leading fusion technology today also assume a leading role in the training of global talent. The approach must be inclusive, practical and impact-oriented. Because training local talent in the countries where the next energy infrastructures will be deployed is not only a matter of equity: it is a condition for their viability.
Conclusion: without talent, there is no fusion
Fusion energy advances, but it needs hands to build, operate, and maintain it. The future of this technology does not depend only on its technical advances. It also depends on the ability to train the next generation of professionals who will make it possible.
The conclusion is clear: we need a global talent strategy. That trains both experts and technicians. That promotes mobility and cooperation. That it is not limited to Europe and the US, but also includes the countries that need it most. Only then will fusion be able to deliver on its promise to transform the global energy system.
This article is part of the analysis that we have carried out at the Bankinter Innovation Foundation. The full report, Fusion Energy: An Energy Revolution in the Making, brings together input from more than twenty international experts and defines the five critical axes for scaling fusion energy as a climate, economic and technological driver.
Download it here and find out in detail how we can build tomorrow’s energy system today.
And if you are interested in continuing to explore this transformation, don’t miss the next installments of the Fusion Forward series, where we continue to bring society closer – with rigour and vision – to the keys to the energy future that is already being designed.
Responsable del Programa de Ingeniería Nuclear y Radiológica y Física Médica en Georgia Tech
