Coppi, B.

Bruno Coppi (born 19 November 1935 in Gonzaga, Lombardy, Italy) is an Italian-American physicist specializing in plasma physics. In 1959, Coppi attained an Italian doctoral degree at Polytechnic University of Milan and was subsequently a docent and research scientist at the Polytechnic Institute and the University of Milan. In 1961, he was a scientist at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. From 1964 to 1967, he was an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, from 1967 to 1969 at the Institute for Advanced Study, and from 1968 a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the 1980s, Coppi was a member of the science team in the Voyager 2 space probe. Coppi works on theoretical plasma physics, space plasmas and magnetic fusion. At MIT, he initiated the Alcator Program, which led to the Russian-American Ignitor program, which aims at building near Moscow a fusion reactor with Coppi as the principal investigator for the project. In addition, Coppi is taking a leading role in the Frascati Torus Program in Italy.