How can I get involved in fusion research and development? Are there jobs in this field?

Fusion research are large-scale science projects.  Since these research are conducted in an academic environment, a PhD is almost required for a R&D position.  For engineering positions, a B.S. degree in the relevant field can be sufficent.  I think you are most qualified for their software engineering positions. Here are three experiments: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Ignition_Facility http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendelstein_7-X In term of job outlook, it depends entirely on science funding.  From Physics Today, http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/66/6/10.1063/PT.3.2006

Lockheed martin has also been doing some fusion research, just to add to the small list... https://plus.google.com/+SolveforX/posts/HsTGsEz3Zpv As others have said, to do research you need a Phd. If you were *incredibly* lucky you might get a support role like IT supporting such a group without one but those jobs are very rare.

The tokamak kind of fusion is dead, it never worked well, it can't produce a reactor. You can find promising fusion research by contacting Hagelstein, McKubre, and others involved with cold fusion, in Palladium deuterium systems. These have reproduced effects which are promising for engineering. For cold fusion, the main thing is a good knowledge of chemistry and solid state physics, and quantum mechanics. You also need some nuclear physics. Most of these things are not picked up by a physics PhD, or a chemistry PhD, so you can best learn it in a library on your own. But you need the basics of the fields, and this is something you can get with an undergraduate degree and a masters degree in physics or chemistry, or with self-study at the equivalent level. Learning quantum mechanics well is the time-consuming part, condensed matter theory is also time-consuming. The chemistry is a black art, and this is something you can only learn with laboratory experience. In this regard, I should add that PACER solved the engineering problem of managed fusion energy, by designing a plant using hydrogen bombs blown up in an underground cavity. This solution works as engineering, it is old technology, but it is politically impossible today, due to proliferation worries and fears of use of the bomb as weapons.