Donald Spong is a member of the Plasma Theory and Modeling Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and an unfunded collaborator in the “Simons Finding Optimum Magnetic Fields with Hidden Symmetries” project. His interests are in energetic particle confinement/instabilities in stellarators, and in 3D design optimization. Don was involved in original development of the STELLOPT code and the design optimization and analysis of the QPS and NCSX devices. Other interests include runaway electron physics, tokamak energetic particle instabilities, and development of gyrofluid/gyrokinetic models for energetic particle instabilities. Honors and appointments include: Fellow of the American Physical Society, University of Tennessee/Battelle science and technology award, Martin Marietta/ORNL publications and author of the year awards, and two appointments as Visiting Professor at the National Institute for Fusion Science (Japan’s main stellarator laboratory with the LHD stellarator).