Ronald M. Scanlan

Biography

Ronald M. Scanlan received a Ph.D. degree from Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, in 1970. 

Earlier in his career, he was responsible for development of Nb₃Sn conductor for the HFTF fusion magnet at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He was the Group Leader for Superconducting Wire and Cable Development at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA. At LBNL (1994–1999), he also served as the Magnet Program Head during the design, construction, and testing of the world's first 13.5-T Nb₃Sn dipole magnet.

Most recently, he managed the Conductor Development Program for the Division of High Energy Physics, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC. The goal of this program is the industrial development of a cost-effective, high-field superconductor for accelerator magnet applications. In the first 18 months of this program, one of the participating industrial firms was able to increase the critical current density in Nb₃Sn by over 50%, to 3000 A/mm² at 4.2 K and 12 T. He is currently retired. He is the author or co-author of over 100 publications in the field of superconducting materials. 

Dr. Scanlan shared the IEEE Particle Accelerator Conference Award for 1991 wth Dr. D. C. Larbalestier “for the development of NbTi superconducting material for high current density application in high field superconducting magnets.”