Séminaire, Dr. Alessandro Formisano, Sept. 23, 2024

Master and Doctoral school Unit « Sustainable Development Applications »

A short introduction to (Magnetically Confined) Thermonuclear Fusion

Dr. Alessandro Formisano
Full Professor, Electrical Sciences,
Università della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”

September 23, 2024 / 15:30-17:30h
room 110, Building P2, campus « Cité Scientifique »

Abstract

The world energy demand is getting higher and higher, but the fossil sources are rapidly exhausting, not to speak of their environmental impact. The need for alternative, sustainable energy sources is strong. Among those, nuclear fusion represents one of the top choices, but its complexity is overwhelmingly demanding: high-energy physics to be controlled, incredibly large magnetic fields to be generated with high accuracy and driven accordingly to tightly controlled waveforms. Not to speak of the intrinsically unstable nature of a burning plasma! The technology behind a possible reactor represents one of the most advanced research frontiers in engineering. This short seminar aims to deliver a gentle introduction to the physics of magnetically confined thermonuclear fusion, showing the achievements but also the critical aspects of this promising technology.

About the Speaker

Alessandro Formisano holds a MS in Electronic Engineering from Univ. di Napoli “Federico II” and a PhD in Electrical Sciences from the same university. He is full professor of Electrical Sciences since 2016 at Università della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”.
Professor Formisano interests are in the numerical computation of electromagnetic fields, in the resolution of inverse problems in electromagnetism, in the machine learning approaches, and finally in the engineering aspects of nuclear fusion. He was Co-Chairman of the 2020 Edition of the CEFC, and is the general chairman of the Compumag 2025 conference.