Biographical Sketch

John Slough received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D in Astrophysics from Columbia University. He has spent over 40 years working in the field of experimental physics. He has worked in both industry and academia, and in that time, he has authored or coauthored over 175 publications. He is the holder of over 10 patents. He worked at the University of Washington (UW) for 25 years where he was on the faculty in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. He founded MSNW in 1991, a small business which established a long history in the research and development of novel nuclear fusion concepts, advanced space propulsion, and other plasma physics technologies He has been the Principal Investigator (PI) or co-PI on over 50 grants and contracts sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Defense (DOD), the Air Force Office of Sponsored Research (AFOSR), the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) the National Science Foundation (NSF), DARPA, ARPA-E, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), NASA SBIR and STTR phase I and II grants, as well as several NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) phase I and phase II awards.

Some highlights from his research: He was the principal investigator on several large fusion related projects at the UW funded by the DOE. Experiments performed by Dr. Slough led to advances in the formation and confinement of Field Reversed Configurations (FRCs) as a fusion concept as well as a better understanding of the relevant physics. He established the Plasma Dynamics Laboratory at the UW where research was conducted on an array of experiments that include the Pulsed High Density fusion experiment funded by DOE as well as novel propulsion applications such as the Plasma Magnet funded by NIAC. Propulsion research has also been conducted on the Magnetically Accelerated Plasmoid (MAP) Thruster funded by the AFRL, as well as a micro-discharge micro-thruster for nanosats. He has conducted key experiments employing Rotating Magnetic Field current drive and heating in plasmas, and constructed the jointly funded DOE-NASA experiment STX. Based on his LANL funded high density fusion research he developed a direct and highly efficient method for space propulsion referred to as the Fusion Driven Rocket which was funded by NIAC grants and which verified the key elements needed for a full-scale test of the concept. It awaits NASA to make the next move forward. This research also led to breakthroughs over the past several years which demonstrated the successful acceleration and merging of mg mass FRCs to velocities of over 300 km/sec. These experiments led him to propose a fusion concept he dubbed “The Fusion Engine”. He founded a spin-off company, Helion Energy, to develop the concept into commercial fusion reactor which received an 8 million dollar grant from ARPA-E, and has now obtained venture capital funding that has exceeded 500 million dollars. Since then, he has updated and much improved the concept with a staged compression that avoids several of the issues arising from the initial design. The result is a Compact FRC Fusion Reactor (CFR2) that provides for a traveling burn and a method for energy recovery after burn. The unique design is also ideal for the application of transmuting nuclear waste from fission reactors while generating significant power (700 MWe) as well as 10 kg of Tritium for other fusion applications. These and other concepts are detailed in the downloadable Research Papers, Presentations, and Posters that can be found on the website. The lists are not complete as this is a work in progress.