Double investiture ‘surreal’ says global fusion scientist
AN EMINENT Guernsey scientist has described as ‘surreal’ his twin achievements of being knighted and becoming a fellow of the Royal Society on the same day.
Sir Ian Chapman, who was educated at La Houguette and Elizabeth College, was named in King Charles III’s first New Years Honours list and was knighted for services to global fusion energy by the Prince of Wales.
His investiture took place at Windsor Castle on 10 May – the day he obtained his Royal Society fellowship.
‘The whole experience has been surreal,’ he said.
‘I really hope it is seen as reward for the thousands of brilliant people I am fortunate to represent, and not about me.’
Sir Ian has, since 2016, been the chief executive officer of the UK Atomic Energy Authority in Oxfordshire – a UK government research organisation with more than 2,000 scientists and engineers and an annual budget of more than £200m.
It can boast the world’s most powerful operating fusion device, and in July it hosted 700 delegates from 26 countries who gathered to progress fusion energy powerplant development.
‘I had met the Prince of Wales once before – five years ago – when I hosted a visit to our site,’ Sir Ian said.
‘He remembered his visit and we spoke about all that we have achieved since then. I was delighted that I could share the day with my family. My wife and children have to put up with the unreasonable demands of my job, so I’m glad they could share in some of the benefits too.’
He described his fellowship of the Royal Society as being ‘in some ways, even more surreal’.
‘I had an overriding feeling of imposter syndrome when signing the same book as luminaries like Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Alan Turing and Stephen Hawking, among many others,’ he said.
Around 1,800 distinguished scientists and engineers make up the fellowship of the Royal Society, with existing members selecting new ones.
The fellowship promotes the impact and benefit of scientific discovery and inclusion in its ranks is seen as a great honour.
‘Fusion energy has the potential to be a carbon-free, effectively-limitless source of energy in the future,’ Sir Ian said.
‘We know fusion works – it is the process which powers our Sun, after all – but it is fiendishly difficult to achieve on a commercial scale here on Earth. We are working on overcoming the technical challenges and hope to build prototype fusion powerplants in the future.’
