Emilio Panarella; Technical Advisor and Founder

Mr. Panarella originally founded Advanced Laser and Fusion Technology, Inc., – a spin-off from NRC’s plasma radiation program – which would become ALFT. His vision to use hot dense plasma as a commercially viable source for electromagnetic radiation (specifically soft X-ray generation) was the driving force behind the company’s creation.From 1964 to 1987, Mr. Panarella held various positions at the National Research Council of Canada ranging from Assistant Research Officer to Senior Research Officer, and working as a plasma physicist in energy production from fusionable plasmas. In the 1980s, Mr. Panarella advanced the concept of the two-stage spherical pinch implosion – now an accepted concept in fusion for energy production.

Mr. Panarella is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the New York Academy of Sciences. He is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, as well as member of several learned societies, such as the European Physical Society, and the Canadian Nuclear Society. He is the editor of the journal Physics Essays, an international journal dedicated to fundamental questions in physics. He has published well over 100 papers, and holds a patent on the generation of soft Xrays from vacuum sparks. He has been invited to speak at several leading institutions, including Los Alamos National Laboratory, Imperial College, and Centre de Recherches Nucleaires.

He obtained a Doctorate in Navigational Sciences from the University of Naples, Italy, Department of Navigational Sciences (an interdisciplinary Department between Mathematics and Physics that pays special attention to problems of Navigational Astronomy and Astrophysics). He was made an Honorary Citizen of Camogli, Italy in May 2001, and was the winner of the ‘Premio Camogli’ in May 2003.