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 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). Since
1998 he has been an Associate Research Professor at the
Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and for the
past four years held the position of Visiting Senior Research
Scientist at University of Maryland. He has collaborated with
many national and international research institutes, including
Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, Argonne and Thomas Jefferson
National Laboratories, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center,
private industry and universities in the US, Europe and the
Former Soviet Union.
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. He has recently (2003) been elected
Fellow of the American Physical Society (Division of Beams)
for his contributions to the understanding and application of
transition, diffraction and parametric x-radiation.
Dr. Fiorito is also a visitor at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center where he is investigating x-ray spectra and timing data from Black Hole candidate sources.
Related websites:
Free Electron Laser Group
