Heating Systems for Fusion Machines

Maria studied physics at the University of Bari (Italy) where she also completed her PhD in the field of high-energy and heavy-ion physics working on data analysis for one of the large experiments at the CERN LHC (ALICE). She continued to do research in this field afterwards as postdoc at the University of Bari (Italy), GSI in Darmstadt (Germany) and the University of Heidelberg (Germany). Whilst working at GSI, Maria was granted a Humboldt fellowship. 

Maria started at UKAEA in 2017 as a Neutral Beam physicsts She took part in operations and data analysis for the JET Neutral Beam Injectors (NBI), JET Neutral Beam Test Bed and subsequently on MAST Upgrade NBI. She  also contributed to physics studies in the design phase of the upgrade of the MAST Upgrade NBI. 

Maria started to lead operations on MAST Upgrade NBI in 2020, a responsibility that she still holds as part of her current role of Neutral Beam Injection Systems, Team Leader in the Plasma Science and Fusion Operations Division. Here she manages a team of technicians, physicists and engineers that  maintain, develop, upgrade and run MAST Upgrade NBI. 

She transitioned to the current role in 2024 from the Heating and Current Drive Development Group Leader role, a group that contributed to operate all neutral beam injectors at UKAEA (JET, MAST Upgrade and JET Test Bed), maintained and operated the JET Neutral Beam Test Bed and provided resources to the STEP project.