Ralph Fiorito did his graduate studies in physics at the
Catholic University of America, Washington, DC (M.S.E. in
space plasma physics; Ph.D. in magnetic resonance) and
postgraduate studies in charged particle beam and plasma
physics at the University of Maryland, College Park. His
research interests include beam physics, beam diagnostics,
beam-based radiation sources and high energy astrophysics.
From 1973-1997 Dr. Fiorito was employed as a research
physicist at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Silver
Spring, MD, where his research focused on the radiation from
intense electron beams and their interaction with matter. From 1978-1979
he was a visiting scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory
(Division of Plasma Physics) and, in 1981, at the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (Beam Research Division). From
1998-2001 he held the appointment of Associate Research Professor at the
Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and in 2001 joined the
faculty of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics at the University of Maryland, where he is presently a Senior Research Faculty. Dr. Fiorito has collaborated with
many national and international research institutes, including
Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Argonne, Oak Ridge, Jefferson, and Stanford (SLAC)
National Laboratories, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland, and the Tomsk Polytechnic University in Russia.
In 1995 he received the Navy Civilian Service Award for his
work in charged particle beam technologies, and in 1993 was
the co-recipient of the Faraday Cup Award for the invention
and development of Optical Transition Radiation (OTR) Beam
Emittance Diagnostics. In 2003 he was elected
Fellow of the American Physical Society (Division of Beams)
for his contributions to the fundamental understanding and applications of
transition, diffraction, and parametric x-radiation from charged particles.
Dr. Fiorito serves as a research advisor to graduate students as well as other IREAP faculty members and has given a number of invited lectures on charged particle beam diagnostics in regular ECE courses and most recently (2008) at the U.S. Particle Accelerator School held at the University of Maryland.
Laboratory:
Diagnostics Development Laboratory
Energy Research Facility, Room 0138
Phone: (301) 405-4985
Related websites:
Free Electron Laser Group
