Radu Bălescu


Radu Bălescu was a Romanian and Belgian scientist and professor at the Statistical and Plasma Physics group of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
He studied at the Titu Maiorescu high school, in Bucharest and the Athénée Royal d'Ixelles. At the ULB he studied chemistry and obtained a PhD in 1958. He started his academic career in 1957 at the ULB as an assistant at the Service de Physique Théorique et Mathématique. He became a professor at the ULB in 1964. He worked on the statistical physics of charged particles and on the theory of transport of magnetically confined plasmas. Radu Balescu was involved in the European fusion programme for more than 30 years as a scientist and as the head of research unit of the ULB group in the Euratom-Belgian state Association.
In 1970 he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Exact Sciences. In 2000 he received the Hannes Alfvén Prize.