Davide Curreli

Davide Curreli is a Professor and Donald Biggar Willett Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), affiliated with the Grainger College of Engineering and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). He holds a Ph.D. in Space Sciences from the University of Padua (2011), an M.S. (2007), and a B.S. (2004) in Aerospace Engineering from the same institution. His academic career includes roles as Assistant Professor (2013-2019), Associate Professor (2019-2024), and current Professor in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering (NPRE).

Research Interests:

• Plasma-material interactions (PMI)
• Plasma modeling using fluid/kinetic models
• Transport phenomena in plasmas
• Code development for fusion and industrial applications

Teaching: Courses include NPRE 523 (Plasma Waves), NPRE 526 (Plasma-Material Interactions), and NPRE 421 (Plasma and Fusion Science). He has been recognized as an outstanding teacher, including the NPRE Teacher of the Year (2019).

Key Honors: Donald Biggar Willett Faculty Scholar (2020), NCSA Faculty Fellow (2015), and multiple student teaching awards.

Research Contributions: Focus on plasma edge modeling, fusion energy solutions, and computational tools like the hPIC2 particle-in-cell code. Collaborates with institutions like CEA-IRFM on divertor plasma experiments (e.g., WEST project).