Radu Bălescu

{{Short description|Romanian physicist (1932–2006)}}

{{About|the scientist and professor|the Lieutenant-General|Radu Baldescu{{!}}Radu Baldescu}}

File:Radu Balescu.jpg

Radu Bălescu (Bucharest, 18 July 1932 – 1 June 2006, Bucharest) was a Romanian and Belgian (from 1959) scientist and professor at the Statistical and Plasma Physics group of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

He studied at the Titu Maiorescu High School{{cite web|url=https://www.cnilcb.ro/?cat=15|title=Alumni|lang=ro|publisher=Ion Luca Caragiale National College Bucharest|website=www.cnilcb.ro|access-date=August 27, 2024}} in Bucharest (1943–1948) and the Athénée Royal d'Ixelles (1948–1950). At the ULB (1950–1958) he studied chemistry and obtained a PhD in 1958. He started his academic career in 1957 at the ULB as an assistant (with Prof. Ilya Prigogine) 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 (Bălescu-Lenard collision operator{{cite journal | last=Mynick | first=Harry E. | title=The generalized Balescu-Lenard collision Operator | journal=Journal of Plasma Physics | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=39 | issue=2 | year=1988 | issn=0022-3778 | doi=10.1017/s0022377800013052 | pages=303–317}}) 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.