Paolo Ricci

Paolo Ricci is a Full Professor and Director at the Swiss Plasma Center (SPC) at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) since October 2023. He previously held the Tenure Track Assistant Professor position (2010) and Associate Professor position (2016) at EPFL. His academic affiliations include leadership roles in multiple SPC sub-groups, such as Theory, Low Temperature Plasma Physics and Applications, International Installations, Tokamak Physics, Material Group, Plasma Processing, Applied Superconductivity, Edge Plasma Physics, and Administration.

• Politecnico di Torino (Italy): Master's in Nuclear Engineering (2000)
• Los Alamos National Laboratory: Doctoral studies in kinetic simulation of magnetic reconnection
• Dartmouth College: Postdoctoral research in gyrokinetic simulations of Z pinch plasmas

Ricci's research focuses on plasma turbulence and instabilities, numerical simulations of laboratory and fusion plasmas, and computational methods for plasma physics. His work spans tokamak and stellarator boundary layer dynamics, scrape-off layer turbulence, fast ion transport, and validation of plasma simulation codes like GBS. His recent publications emphasize global fluid simulations in diverted geometries, snowflake magnetic configurations, and theoretical scaling laws for scrape-off layer widths.

His scientific awards include the 2016 Section de Physique Teaching Prize, 2021 Craie d'Or (EPFL physics bachelor students), and 2021 Polysphère d'Or (AGEPoly). Ricci has supervised numerous Ph.D. theses on topics ranging from gyrokinetic moment-based models to scrape-off layer simulations, and actively collaborates with institutions on plasma turbulence validation projects.