Plenary Talks

Pietro Barabaschi
Director General, ITER Organization

Trained as an electro-mechanical engineer, Pietro Barabaschi has spent virtually his entire career in the service of fusion research. Shortly after his university studies in Italy, he joined the Joint European Torus, JET. During the Engineering Design Activities (EDA) phase for ITER, he was part of the Joint Work Site in San Diego (USA) and later the Joint Work Site in Garching/Munich (Germany), where by 2006 he was Deputy to the Project Leader and Head of the Design Integration Division. Since 2008, Mr Barabaschi has been the Head of Broader Approach Programme and Delivery for Fusion for Energy (F4E), the European Union organization responsible for Europe's contribution to ITER. The work includes the construction, now completed, of the advanced tokamak fusion device JT-60SA. Since October 2022 Pietro Barabaschi is the Director-General of the ITER Organization.

Liye XIAO
Professor, Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Prof. Liye Xiao has been working in the energy technology field for more than 20 years. Most of his research activities are related to superconductor applications in the energy and power industry. He lead to successfully build a 10kV superconducting power substation in 2011, and acted as the director of his institute during 2007-2017. Now he focuses his research on energy storage and power transmission grid for the zero carbon goal.

Sataro YAMAGUCHI
Designated Professor, Chubu University

Originally, Sataro YAMAGUCHI studied nuclear fusion. After joining Chubu University in 2001, he developed the Superconducting DC power transmission (SCDC) using high temperature superconductors (HTS), and constructed the 20 m, the 200 m SCDCs inside the university, and 1000 m and 500 m SCDC in Ishikari, Japan.

Byung Su LIM
Professor of Energy Engineering, Korea Institute of Energy Technology (KENTECH)

Byungs Su LIM is a professor at the Korea Institue of Energy Technology. He has worked in the field of superconductivity and superconducting magnets for more than 25 years. He was a former Section Leader of ITER PF Coil/CC Coil Section. He was a team leader of the KSTAR Toroidal Field magnet team. He was a team leader of procurement and test team in ITER KODA office. He worked for Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology as a responsible officer for the KSTAR superconductors. He has a Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering, 1998, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul (Korea).

Denis LE BIHAN
Founding Director, NeuroSpin, CEA Saclay, Paris Saclay University

Denis Le Bihan, MD, PhD, is a physician and a physicist. He founded NeuroSpin in Saclay, France, a leading institution of the CEA dedicated to ultra-high field MRI where he set and led the Iseult project (11.7T whole-body MRI). He has received many prestigious awards for his work, such as the Gold Medal of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the Honda Prize, the Louis D. Award and the Louis-Jeantet Prize. Dr Le Bihan is a full member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Technologies, the National Academy of Medicine, and an Associate Member of the National Academy of Pharmacy.

Arthur KAINDL
Executive Vice President Magnetic Resonance, Siemens Healthineers AG

Dr. Arthur Kaindl is Executive Vice President at Siemens Healthineers. Prior to that, Arthur Kaindl headed the Digital Services and Imaging SW business for Siemens Healthcare. He first started his career at Siemens Healthcare in the Magnetic Resonance Imaging business, where he held various positions in Engineering, Manufacturing and Marketing. Arthur Kaindl holds Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, a Master of Science in Ceramics Engineering and a Diploma Degree in Material Science.

Mike LAMONT
Director of Accelerators and Technology, CERN

Lamont joined CERN as a fellow in 1989, becoming an engineer-in-charge for SPS/LEP Operations in 1991 and subsequently LEP Machine Coordinator. Following LEP, he became LHC Machine Coordinator, overseeing the preparation for the initial commissioning. From 2009 to 2016, he led the Operations group in the Beams department. In 2017, he became deputy head of the Beams department where, besides departmental duties, he co-coordinated the Physics Beyond Colliders study. In 2021, he became Director of Accelerators and Technology.

Gianfranco FEDERICI
Head of the Fusion Technology Department, EUROFusion

Gianfranco Federici has 30 years of professional experience in fusion engineering and fusion reactor design and R&D, plasma-facing component design and R&D, plasma surface interactions, breeding blanket design and R&D. NET Team (1990-1992); ITER EDA Team (1993-2006); EFDA (2006-2007); Fusion for Energy (2008-2010); EFDA (2011-2013), EUROfusion (2014-today). Today he is 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). Gianfranco Federici has Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering, 1989, University of California, Los Angeles (USA), Master Degree in Nuclear Engineering, 1988, University of California, Los Angeles (USA); Degree in Nuclear Engineering, 1985, Polytechnic of Milan, (Italy).

Yuntao SONG
Professor/Director of Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Yuntao Song works as the Director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP), since 2020. He is now in charge of the EAST tokamak project. He received his Ph.D from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research focuses on key technologies of tokamak fusion devices including large-scale superconducting magnet systems. He has been involved in multiple fusion research and R&D projects in China such as CFETR, the CRAFT project etc.. He has also been involved in research for the ITER project since from 2008.