Riccardo Betti is the Robert L. McCrory professor of Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

, in Rochester, NY. Since 2004, he has also acted as the Director of the Fusion Science Center at the

Laboratory for Laser Energetics The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) is a scientific research facility which is part of the University of Rochester's south campus, located in Brighton, New York. The lab was established in 1970 and its operations since then have been fund ...

. He received is Ph.D. from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(Cambridge, MA) in 1992. Prior to that he studied at the University of Rome (Italy), where he graduated with honors with a degree in Nuclear Engineering in 1987.

Honors and awards

Dr. Betti was the Chair of the American Physical Society's Division of Plasma Physics (November, 2014-October 2015). His awards and recognitions include: 2020 Landau-Spitzer Award from the American and European Physical Societies for Outstanding Contributions to Plasma Physics. 2012 recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ernest O. Lawrence Award for "a series of impactful theoretical discoveries in the physics of inertial confinement fusion including seminal transformative work on thermonuclear ignition, hydrodynamic instabilities and implosion dynamics, and the development of innovative approaches to ignition and energy gains." 2010 Leadership Award from Fusion Power Associates "for the leadership he has been providing to the U.S. and world inertial fusion efforts, including his contributions to the search for efficient methods of igniting fusion targets, contributions to the emerging field of

high energy density physics High-energy-density physics (HEDP) is a new subfield of physics intersecting condensed matter physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics and plasma physics. It has been defined as the physics of matter and radiation at energy densities in excess of a ...

, and his advisory role in the DOE's Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee." 2009, The Edward Teller Medal from the

American Nuclear Society The American Nuclear Society (ANS) is an international, not-for-profit organization of scientists, engineers, and industry professionals that promote the field of nuclear engineering and related disciplines. ANS is composed of three communities ...

"for seminal contributions to the theory and understanding of hydrodynamic instabilities, implosion dynamics and thermonuclear ignition in inertial confinement fusion." He has been a Fellow at the American Physical Society since 2001. In 2010, he was appointed to the Board of Physics and Astronomy of the National Academy of Sciences. He was Vice Chair of the Fusion Energy Science Committee of the Department of Energy. On October 29, 2009, Dr Betti gave a statement to the U.S. House of Representative's Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment on the "Next Generation of Fusion Energy Research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Betti, Riccardo 1963 births Living people Italian mechanical engineers University of Rochester faculty 21st-century Italian engineers 20th-century Italian engineers Fellows of the American Physical Society