As of September 22, 2009, Rezwan Razani is the Executive Director of the Focus Fusion Society.

Background: 

Rezwan received her B.A. in Environmental Science from UC Berkeley in 1989 and her M.R.P. (Masters in Regional Planning) from Cornell in 1992.  Planning degree in hand, she spent some time in South Africa working with an organization that provided job training in townships. She found the experience inspiring as she witnessed the heroic efforts of people to rise out of poverty. She also found it overwhelming and so fled to Los Angeles, abandoning the poor to pursue an escapist writing career path.

In one of her first jobs in LA, she wrote text for an interactive educational CD on “The Atomic Age.” At this point, an eager production assistant went to the library for research materials and returned with a stack of books, including Eric Lerner’s “The Big Bang Never Happened.” This book was thought provoking, inspiring, paradigm shifting. Eventually, Rezwan set up her website (ajaban.com) of fiction, satire and social commentary. On one page, she referred to the book and noted that as a result of reading it, her jury was out on the Big Bang issue and she looked forward to more debate on the topic. A year later, she received an email from the author who might have been googling his book. He thanked her for the reference but informed her that she had gotten his name wrong. She quickly corrected the error, and also asked him what he had been doing since the book. He mentioned the fusion project which was being funded by NASA at that time. She wished him well and there the matter rested.

Then the unthinkable happened. In July of 2004, Rezwan’s cousin Omead Razani, who had joined the US Army as a medic, was due home from Korea. He never made it. Due to stop/loss, his service was extended and he was sent to Iraq. On August 27, Omead was shot in the head while tending to an injured person in Habbaniyah. He was 19. Rezwan and her family are devastated. While mourning his loss and feeling enraged about what, for all appearances, is a war for control of oil, Rezwan remembered the fusion project.

She contacted Eric Lerner to check on the status of the fusion project which was progressing, but at a slow pace due to inconsistent funding. In discussions with Eric and Bob it was decided that the power of the internet had not been fully exploited. There is an opportunity here for getting people involved in making a big difference in the world, making history, playing a critical role in getting this research to happen in a timely manner. Rezwan became involved in recasting the website content with the fusion now campaign, public outreach and fundraising. She is dedicated to an elegant solution to global energy problems as envisioned by the focus fusion approach and brought about by public participation. She hopes many people out there will recognize that they are the ones that can make this project happen NOW, and that the sooner we all raise the money, the quicker it can be determined if focus fusion works. In the event that it does not, she hopes we will all continue to seek out and support alternatives in fusion research until the solution is found. The best case scenario is that focus fusion works as advertised and we get it on the first try. One stop shopping!

For the past 5 years, Rezwan has been the webmaster of FFS.  Much of this work was done while she lived in Iran, teaching regional planning at the University of Shiraz.  She came to New Jersey in August 2009 to work with Focus Fusion full time.  As an Iranian-American, she is dedicated to promoting peace and prosperity in the Middle-East and creative and cultural exchange between that region and the world.  While it looks like fusion can undermine oil-based economies, with foresight and good management, and a free and globally connected population, the opposite can be true.