Radu Bălescu (Bucharest, 18 July 1932 – 1 June 2006, Bucharest) was a Romanian and Belgian (since 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[1] 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[2]) 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.