The Search for Viable Fusion Energy: In Pursuit of the Sun Gods

This book describes the journey to produce viable fusion energy. This journey has not been smooth, and significant challenges remain, yet the existential need to produce non-carbon-producing forms of energy is so profound that governments and firms around the world are rapidly increasing their investments in this new kind of energy production.

Fusion energy holds the possibility of providing unlimited, sustainable power, and this book tells the story of its history and development, and its current progress as it moves from research to commercial production. It is a story of the importance of basic research and the challenges of turning it into commercial use. Fusion energy has progressed from the thinking of great scientists, such as Curie and Einstein, to the problems faced by engineers of designing and building machines that operate at temperatures ten times hotter than the centre of the Sun.

Fusion energy is a story of humanity at its best, of scientists, engineers, policymakers, and businesspeople working together and driven to solve a problem that threatens humankind’s existence as we know it.

Mark Dodgson AO

Mark Dodgson is a researcher, teacher, and author with extensive experience in academia and business. He is currently Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland and Executive-in-Residence at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Previous roles include Senior Fellow, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex; Executive Director, National Graduate School of Management, Australian National University; and Director of the Technology and Innovation Management Centre, University of Queensland. His PhD is from Imperial College London, and his various professorial chairs have been in innovation management and innovation studies.

He has written or edited 19 books and written over 150 academic articles on innovation and entrepreneurship, and has researched and taught the subject in over sixty countries around the world. His research addresses how innovation is changing with an especial interest in project-based organizations, science-business collaboration, the behaviours of highly successful entrepreneurs, and innovation in professional services companies and in philanthropy. He has published widely on innovation in 18th century England, and his most recent book is on innovation in China. He has recently completed a research project on the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine.

Mark Dodgson has advised numerous companies and governments throughout Europe, Asia, and North and South America and has been on the Boards and Advisory Boards of two multibillion-dollar companies and five start-ups.

David Gann CBE

David Gann is a leader in the field of business, innovation, technology management and entrepreneurship. His research explores why and how innovation happens, the ways it continually transforms the world we live in, and how it can be managed. David has published nine books to date and numerous academic papers.

He was Pro-Vice-Chancellor Development & External Affairs at Oxford University (2020-2023), and prior to that Vice-President (Innovation) at Imperial College London (2013-2019), leading the vision, strategy and innovation agenda for the development of Imperial’s new White City Campus. He was Professor of Innovation and Technology Management at Imperial College Business School (2003 - 2020) and has a PhD in Industrial Economics, an MSc in Science Policy, is a Chartered Civil Engineer, a Fellow of the Institution of Civil, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art, and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

As current Chair of UK Industrial Fusion Solutions Ltd, his leadership is focused on the delivery of the STEP programme to design and build the world’s first prototype fusion energy plant, and he was previously Chair of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (2018-2023). He frequently advises governments and was a member of the UK Government’s Innovation Expert Group and the Ministry of Defence’s Technology and Innovation Board.

David Gann is an entrepreneur, who mentors start-ups, advises Boards, and has formed several companies. He is a non-executive director of VenCap plc, currently on the Advisory Board of Euroclear, the Board of GenIP plc, and was Group Innovation Executive at Laing O’Rourke plc. His pro bono work includes co-founding the Villars Institute, a Swiss foundation focusing on systems leadership to halt climate change and bio-diversity loss; and he is a board member of the London Symphony Orchestra.