We are honored to welcome the following speakers on our event.
Elena Righi-Steele
Head of Unit, DG RTD – Unit C.4 – Euratom Research
Elena Righi-Steele is currently Head of Unit 'Euratom Research' in the Directorate ‘Clean Planet’ of DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission, overseeing all aspects of nuclear research and innovation policy and research related to Euratom, including fusion and fission research, as well as inter-institutional and international cooperation policy
Gabriella Saibene
Gabriella Saiben worked in Nuclear Fusion R&D for more than 30 years, leading experiments and people, as well as designing and constructing complex high-tech systems. I have authored or co-authored hundreds of scientific publications, and participated or chaired international scientific and advisory committees. Areas of knowledge and expertise are:
- experimental studies of fusion-relevant material
- Plasma Operations (JET)
- H-mode physics
- Design and fabrication of heating systems for ITER
- Management and coordination of technological development activities for ITER
- Coordination of plasma engineering activities in F4E for ITER
- Preparation for ITER exploitation
Gianfranco Federici
Current experience
Head of the Fusion Technology Department and of the DEMO Central Team in the EUROfusion Consortium (on assignment from Fusion for Energy).
Responsible for the coordination and technical oversight of the Design and R&D efforts in Europe aimed to the conceptual design of a DEMOnstration Fusion Power Plant (DEMO).
Professional experience
More than 30 years of professional experience in fusion engineering and fusion reactor design and technology R&D, plasma-facing component design and R&D, plasma surface interactions, breeding blanket design. NET Team (1990-1992); ITER EDA Team (1993-2006); EFDA (2006-2007); F4E (2008-2010); EFDA (2011-2013), EUROfusion (2014-today).
Education:
Ph.D. in Nucl. Eng, 1989, University of California, Los Angeles (USA); MS in Nucl. Eng., 1988, University of California, Los Angeles (USA); Degree in Nucl. Eng., 1985, Polytechnic of Milan, (Italy).
Professional Distinctions
Fusion Power Associates (FPA) Leadership Award (2019); Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (2008); Outstanding Technical Accomplishment Award - ANS Fusion Energy Division (2002); David J. Rose Award for Excellence in Fusion Engineering - FPA (2000).
Publications:
More than 200 publications in peer-refereed scientific journals of which more than 40 as a main author.
Christian Theiler
Christian Theiler obtained his Master’s degree in physics from ETH Zu
rich in 2007
and his PhD from EPFL in 2011. He then joined MIT as a postdoctoral associate to work on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak. In 2014, he returned to EPFL as a EUROfusion fellow, to join the TCV tokamak team. Two years later, he was named Tenure Track Assistant Professor in Plasma Physics at EPFL. Christian’s research focuses on tokamak boundary physics and related diagnostic techniques. He has contributed to the understanding of the formation, propagation, and control of turbulent plasma structures, called blobs, and gained new insights on the structure of transport barriers in the plasma periphery in different high confinement regimes. His current research focuses on detachment physics and turbulence characteristics in conventional and alternative divertor magnetic geometries.
He is the recipient of the 2020 IAEA Nuclear Fusion Award and the 2015 Young Scientist Award of the IUPAP Commission on Plasma Physics.
He received an SNSF Eccellenza Grant from 2019-2023, was the PI for a EUROfusion Enabling Research Grant from 2019-2020, and received a EUROfusion postdoctoral fellowship from 2014-2016 and an SNSF advanced postdoctoral mobility grant in 2014.
Karl Lackner
Prof. Dr. Karl Lackner was born and undertook undergraduate and graduate studies in Innsbruck. His earliest research activities were on plasma accelerators and MHD generators (PHD thesis and at STD Research Corporation in Pasadena), later he moved to space research at the European Space Research Institute in Frascati and from 1972 onward (mainly) into fusion research at the Max Planck Institute of Plasma Physics. There he was nominated Director of the Division Tokamakphysik in 1984, which he remained with short interruptions till his retirement in 2014. From 1988 onward he was also Honorarprofessor at University of Innsbruck. From 1992-2000 he served as Member of the IPP Directorate, and from 2000-2002 he was seconded as Leader to EFDA. Initially his personal research interest was mainly in Computational Plasma Physics (he developed algorithms and codes for the geomagnetic ring current, MHD equilibria and stability, divertor physics, magnetic reconnection and briefly also for inertial fusion), but he later led more general the IPP activities in the field of tokamak theory. Starting with 1974 he became increasingly involved in overall planning and design of tokamak experiments: ASDEX, Zephyr (an adiabatic tokamak compression experiment with the aim of ignition, stopped after the conceptual design phase), ASDEX-Upgrade, also INTOR and ITER, with a contribution also to the Princeton Magnetorotational Instability Experiment. Since his official retirement he keeps - together with younger colleagues at IPP - a watching brief on fusion approaches alternative to tokamaks and stellarators.
Justin Ball
Justin Ball is a research scientist at the Swiss Plasma Center at EPFL. His research primarily focuses on the effect of plasma shaping on turbulence in tokamaks. In 2016, he completed a PhD at the University of Oxford and received the European Plasma Physics PhD Thesis Award. Additionally, he is an avid science communicator and, together with Jason Parisi, wrote the popular science book "The Future of Fusion Energy."
Mario Michan
Dr Mario Michan, CEO & Founder of Daphne Technology, is a visionary
leader committed to using technology to address environmental challenges. He combines his maritime industry background and scientific/engineering expertise to create innovative solutions for reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions. Before founding Daphne Technology, Mario was a Research Scientist at The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and previously served as an officer in the Colombian Navy and worked as a merchant ship deck and engineer officer. Mario holds a PhD in Physics from The University of British Columbia, a Post-graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship from Cambridge Judge Business School, and an Executive MBA in Business Administration and Management from INSEAD, which has equipped him with the necessary skills and knowledge to lead Daphne Technology to success. His commitment to the environment and technology innovation drives Daphne Technology's mission to positively impact the world by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Ivo Furno
Ivo Furno is Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
(EPFL) and leader of the Basic Plasma Physics and Applications group at the Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) in Lausanne, Switzerland. He has More than
20 years of experience in R&D in plasma physics with focus on plasma applications for industry and magnetically confinement fusion. He is Fellow of the APS.
