Dr. Francesco Sciortino from Proxima Fusion is the co-founder and CEO of this Munich-based fusion energy startup, spun out of the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. He is focused on developing fusion power plants using quasi-isodynamic stellarators, viewing Wendelstein 7-X as a key path to fusion energy. With a PhD from MIT in plasma physics and fusion energy, he has extensive research experience on various tokamaks and stellarators, including work at ASDEX-Upgrade and W7-X at MPI-IPP in Germany.