Research: President of the DTT Consortium, Francesco Romanelli, has passed away

Professor Francesco Romanelli, President of the DTT (Divertor Tokamak Test) Consortium, has passed away at the age of 69. He was a leading figure at both the national and international levels in the field of nuclear fusion

Since June 2021, Romanelli had led the Consortium for the construction of the DTT at the ENEA Frascati Research Center, one of the most ambitious scientific projects to achieve fusion power production at power plant scale.

A highly experienced and distinguished physicist, Francesco Romanelli devoted over forty years to research in nuclear fusion, playing a pivotal role in driving progress in magnetic confinement physics. From 1996 to 2006, he directed ENEA activities in this field, strengthening the Agency’s role in the principal international research programs. In 2006, he was appointed Leader of JET (Joint European Torus), the world’s largest magnetic fusion experiment.

Since 2015 he had been a professor of Nuclear Energy Physics at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, where he continued to train new generations of researchers, contributing to the growth of the national scientific community. Co-author of over 1,000 papers in scientific journals, Romanelli also served as editor-in-chief of the international scientific journal Nuclear Fusion, a point of reference for the entire scientific community in the field.

“With Francesco Romanelli, we lose a scientist of the highest caliber and a leading figure in international fusion research” commented ENEA President Francesca Mariotti. “His vision, scientific rigor and ability to foster collaborations between institutions and industry” she continued “gave the DTT project the momentum of a strategic infrastructure for the country’s energy future and made a decisive contribution to strengthening Italy’s role in major international programs.”

“His scientific and human legacy endures as a guiding force for the entire research community and is an unvaluable resource that will live on in the work of researchers, faculty and students who will carry forward his intellectual and moral legacy.”

With his passing, the research world loses an oustanding scientist, a key figure for the fusion scientific community in major international programs.