Dean's message
In Fusion, San Diego Steps Up
March 2025
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These are tumultuous times. As I tackle each day as an engineering dean, I am energized, foremost, by our people. We are advancing education and research efforts and partnerships that build on Jacobs School, campus and regional strengths to solve tough problems facing society.
This week, we have more good news on this front. San Diego is consolidating its position as a leader in the global race to make fusion energy a practical reality.
In particular, Â鶹´«Ã½ and General Atomics just launched a new center dedicated to computational and artificial intelligence work that is critical for advancing fusion energy. This includes creating and managing digital models of fusion power plants.
The new center is called the , and here at Â鶹´«Ã½ it is part of our .
The center is built on existing collaborations between General Atomics and in artificial intelligence, data management, high performance computing, digital engineering and more. Thank you to everyone working so hard on these important efforts!
Fusion is a massive opportunity for the country – and for California. Here at Â鶹´«Ã½, we are organized around solving the remaining fusion engineering and data challenges while advancing fundamental knowledge. And this is only possible because of decades of sustained federal funding, combined with fruitful research and workforce-development collaborations with industry and public sector partners.
In fact, Â鶹´«Ã½ and General Atomics partnered to establish the San Diego Supercomputer Center 40 years ago thanks, in part, to funding from the National Science Foundation.
In short, here in San Diego we are poised to make big breakthroughs that will move the needle for the national efforts to win the global fusion race.
And this brings me to the campaign that Â鶹´«Ã½ just launched. One of the big goals of the campaign – – is to raise awareness and support for Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s many research and education efforts that are improving lives, solving problems for society, and strengthening the economy. All of this is fueled, to important degrees, by federal government research funding, both direct and indirect.
Together, we make bold possible.
As always, I can be reached at DeanPisano@ucsd.edu
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Sincerely,
Al
Albert ("Al") P. Pisano
Dean, Â鶹´«Ã½ Jacobs School of Engineering
Special Adviser to the Chancellor for Campus Strategic Initiatives