PELAB at SOFT 2026: 4th place for the SOFT Innovation Prize and Best Poster Award

At the end of September 2026, the joint team from DTT (Divertor Tokamak Test facility) in Rome and the University of Pavia was selected as a finalist for the Project Award (SOFT Innovation Prize) with the project USABLE at the SOFT 2026 conference (Symposium on Fusion Technology) in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Although the project started only a year and a half ago, the team placed 4th out of 20 finalists. This result shows the growing importance of power supply development and testing in nuclear fusion research.

At the same conference, the team also received the Best Poster Award. This is the second year in a row that the work has been recognised, a sign of the key role that power electronics plays in advancing fusion technology.

The team includes our PhD student Alberto Darjazi Dolaby and Prof. Pericle Zanchetta, together with Alessandro Lampasi, Sabino Pipolo, Cristina Terlizzi and Stefano Bifaretti.

Congratulations to everyone involved. These results motivate us to keep developing our projects and contributing to the future of fusion energy.