Date: Friday 5th December 2025 at 11:00 (BST, UK time)
Speaker: Dr Massimo Ferrario, Senior Scientist at INFN (Frascati) and Project Leader of the EuPRAXIA@SPARC_LAB facility
Abstract
Beam-driven plasma wakefield acceleration (PWFA) is emerging as one of the most promising routes to the next generation of compact accelerators. By using a high-energy electron beam to excite a plasma wave, PWFA can sustain accelerating fields orders of magnitude beyond conventional radiofrequency structures. This approach has the potential to shrink accelerator size dramatically while delivering the ultra-bright beams required for both advanced photon science and high-energy physics.
At the EuPRAXIA@SPARC_LAB facility we are building the European beam-driven plasma wakefield pillar of the pan-European Project EuPRAXIA, aiming to demonstrate high-quality electron beams up to several GeV, to drive novel light sources and to explore the feasibility of a future plasma-based linear collider. Near-term milestones include the delivery of a user-ready betatron X-ray source by 2026 and the commissioning of a short-wavelength Free Electron Laser in the “water window” by 2031, with transformative applications in life sciences and materials research.
This seminar will highlight recent achievements, current challenges, and the long-term vision of EuPRAXIA, showing how diving into the plasma wave with beam-driven wakefields can reshape advanced photon science and pave the way for next-generation colliders.
This seminar will highlight recent progress, key challenges, and future perspectives, showing how diving into the plasma wave with beam-driven wakefields can reshape advanced photon science and pave the way for next-generation colliders.
Biography
Dr Massimo Ferrario is a senior researcher at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare – Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati (INFN-LNF), where he leads the SPARC_LAB facility. He has a long experience in accelerator physics, with pioneering contributions to high-brightness electron sources, advanced beam dynamics, and plasma-based acceleration. He is the scientific coordinator of the EuPRAXIA@SPARC_LAB, the Italian beam-driven pillar of the European EuPRAXIA project, and has been contributing to the design of compact Free Electron Lasers and next-generation plasma accelerators.
In recognition of his achievements, he was awarded the prestigious Enrico Fermi Prize of the Italian Physical Society in 2023. He teaches in the PhD program on Accelerator Physics at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and is an active member of the CERN Accelerator School (CAS) faculty. Over his career, he has served on numerous international advisory and program committees, authored more than 300 scientific publications, and continues to promote the development of innovative accelerator concepts for applications ranging from photon science to high-energy physics.
