Fernando Sannibale

After completing my studies in Physics at “La Sapienza” University in Rome in 1991 (“Laurea Magistralis” with honours), I worked for about 10 years at the Frascati laboratories of INFN in Italy as an accelerator researcher in the framework of DAPHNE, the Frascati positron/electron collider. During that period I was responsible for the electron/positron linac and for the development of a number of beam diagnostics systems. I also was one of the main players during the commissioning phase of the project.

In 2001, I moved to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to be part of the Accelerator Physics group of the Advanced Light Source. Presently, I am a Senior Scientist and the ALS Division Deputy for Accelerator Operations,  and the ALS Accelerator Physics Group leader. In addition to that I am also the ALS Accelerator Physics Program Head at the ATAP Division. 

At the ALS, as a member of the ALS Accelerator Physics Group, I developed an electron beam diagnostic beamline, performed groundbreaking studies for the generation of coherent synchrotron radiation at the ALS and actively participated in the activities of the group and in the operation of the facility. From 2009 to 2017, I was the Principal Investigator of the APEX project, the injector facility developed at LBNL to characterize the performance of the VHF-Gun, a new concept high-repetition rate high-brightness electron source optimized for high duty cycle X-ray FEL applications. A clone version of the VHF-Gun was built at LBNL and delivered to SLAC to drive the injector of the LCLS-II, the high-repetition rate X-ray FEL now in operation at Stanford. In 2013 I was nominated fellow of the American Physical Society for “Contributions to the understanding of coherent synchrotron radiation in storage rings and the development of high brightness electron beam sources”.

Starting in 2018, I became the ALS Division Deputy For Accelerator Operations, position that I still hold today.

• Ring-based light sources
• High-brightness electron sources
• Free Electron Lasers
• Coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR)
• Accelerator diagnostics