Draft:Per Helander

Per Helander (b. 1967) is an theoretical plasma physicist and the head of Stellarator Theory Division at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics and a professor at University of Greifswald.

Early life and career
In 1991, Helander received a Master's degree in plasma physics from Chalmers University of Technology. Subsequently, he earned a PhD degree in theoretical in 1994 on a thesis Dynamics of Fast Ions in Tokamaks.

Helander was as a visiting scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge (USA). He then joined the theory department at Culham Science Centre in Abingdon in 1996. He was an adjunct professor at Chalmers University of Technology from 2002 till 2005. In 2006, he was appointed Scientific Fellow at the Greifswald Branch of Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics. He was appointed to a chair for theoretical plasma physics at the University of Greifswald.

Honours and awards
In 2024, Helander was awarded the Hannes Alfvén Prize for for outstanding contributions to theoretical plasma physics, yielding groundbreaking results that significantly impact the understanding and optimization of magnetically confined fusion plasmas.