Guest professor
wolfgang.biel@ugent.be
Wolfgang Biel obtained the degree in Physics in 1991, and the PhD in physical science in 1996, both at Heinrich-Heine university Duesseldorf (Germany). In his PhD work he conducted experimental studies and modelling on macroscopic oscillations and neutral particle behaviour in a magnetized hydrogen arc discharge.
In 1997, he accepted a position in the Institute for Plasma Physics at the Research Centre Juelich, Germany. In the first years, his main work was focused on the development and application of vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) spectroscopy on the TEXTOR tokamak. Based on these studies, he developed and tested the HEXOS VUV spectrometer system for the new stellarator Wendelstein 7-X and developed the optical design of VUV spectroscopy for ITER.
From 2006 until 2013 he was leading the ITER CXRS diagnostic development in Juelich based on German National Funding. From 2006 until 2012 he coordinated the TEC main topic group on “Diagnostic and Heating” on the TEXTOR tokamak. Since 2010, he is project leader in Juelich for the contributions to the development of a DEMO fusion reactor. In 2014 he was appointed as EUROfusion work package leader in the fusion technology department for the topic “DEMO diagnostic and control”. From 2013 until 2019 he was member of the Technical Advisory Panel of Fusion for Energy (F4E), and since 2021 he is member of the Governing Board of F4E.
Since 2014, Wolfgang Biel is a visiting professor at Ghent university in the Department of Applied Physics in the course Plasma Technology and Fusion Technology (partim Fusion Technology). In this position, he coordinates the lectures on fusion technology and contributes to the supervision of Master and PhD students. His current scientific work is focussed on the development of the diagnostic and control concept for a future DEMO tokamak reactor, and on tokamak reactor systems studies. He published about 150 refereed publications and contributed to the organization of a number of international workshops.