ParisTech Review

BIO

Jérôme Paméla was born in France, in 1955. He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1977, and in 1978 he obtained a diploma in nuclear and particle physics at Orsay University. In 1984, Jérôme Paméla finished his PhD on CELLO, a high energy physics experiment run on the Petra e+/e- Collider located at the DESY Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany. Between 1983 and 1984, Dr. Paméla was also involved in the DELPHI Project at the LEP/CERN, Geneva. After his PhD, he changed his field of research from high energy physics to thermonuclear fusion.

In 1984 Dr. Paméla joined the French Atomic Energy Agency (CEA) Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion Department in Fontenay-aux-Roses near Paris, and then moved to Cadarache in southern France in 1986. Jérôme Paméla was involved in the development of negative ion-based neutral beam heating, first as a physicist, and then as Group and European Task Area Leader. During several years he was responsible for collaboration with Japan in that field. In 1995-1996, he was involved in and ultimately led a first phase of studies preparing Cadarache to bid for siting ITER.

In 1996, Jérôme Paméla was appointed Head of the Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion Department of the CEA and Head of the Euratom-CEA Association. In September 1999 he took up the position of the EFDA Associate Leader for JET, which he held until spring 2006, when he became EFDA Leader at EFDA CSU Garching.

In 2010 he was appointed Director of ITER-France.