THE RADIABEAM TEAM

Alex Murokh (CEO) is an accelerator physicist and cofounder of RadiaBeam. Dr. Murokh received his Ph.D. at UCLA in 2002 for his work on the VISA Free Electron Laser. As a postdoc at UCLA, and later as a RadiaBeam research scientist, he worked on the coherent radiation processes, beam diagnostic techniques, and advanced acceleration methods. Dr. Murokh previously led RadiaBeam’s R&D division for over a decade prior to becoming CEO in 2023. He continues serving as the Principal Investigator on multiple high impact projects, including the development of a compact Inverse Compton Scattering light source at RadiaBeam as well as a high efficiency Free Electron Laser program.

Ronald Agustsson (Vice President of Engineering) has over 20 years of proven experience in multiple aspects of accelerator engineering encompassing accelerator system mechanical design, simulations, design for manufacturing, fabrication and validation. Over the course of his career, he has trained many engineers who have gone on to successful appointments within national laboratories worldwide or into accelerator-based industries. This diverse experience base is regularly employed in his management responsibilities leading a team of over a dozen engineers and specialized production personnel. Further, he has led the engineering efforts for hundreds of differing RF cavities, magnetic beam optics and vacuum systems delivered to national laboratories and industry worldwide.

Marcos Ruelas (Vice President of Sales) earned his BS in Physics with Honors from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2006. He describes himself as “a junior physicist turned part-time salesman.” Mr. Ruelas joined RadiaBeam as a Development Engineer in 2007 and was promoted to Director of the Instrumentation Group in 2010, where he managed the product development process for over $2 million in new diagnostics products sales in his first two years in that role. His success in these efforts led to his taking over the responsibility of all sales and marketing activities at RadiaBeam and he has directly managed or developed over $5 million in direct sales. But Ruelas hasn’t forgotten his scientific roots: he has continued to develop new products for both the research and commercial sectors as a team member, technical lead, and project manager. Notably, Mr. Ruelas is skilled in developing and managing national lab and industrial customer requirements and translating them to scientific and engineering goals with RadiaBeam’s technical and management teams.

Pedro Frigola (Senior Researcher and Cofounder) has more than 20 years of experience in particle accelerator technology. He currently leads our research program in additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing. In 2007, he pioneered the use of additive manufacturing (AM) for the production of RF accelerating cavities, and is an inventor on several related patents. In 2020, he was one of the founding members of The Consortium on the Properties of Additively Manufactured Copper, a consortium that includes Fortune 500 companies, Universities, and small businesses working to develop and commercialize copper 3D printing technologies. In addition, he is responsible for ITAR compliance and maintaining and growing our intellectual property portfolio. He holds a private pilot’s license, and enjoys flying his airplane for business and pleasure.

Robert Berry (VP of Integration, Testing, and Support) is an engineer who focuses on system integration, design, and testing of accelerators. After the rest of the team develops new technology, someone verifies and test the products – Robert Berry and his team do that. He graduated with an M.S. in Engineering from the University of the Pacific with a focus on materials testing. Robert Berry’s background prior to RadiaBeam includes working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, where he led mechanical operations at the linac accelerator facility and was pivotal in the design, setup and associated logistics for experiment setups on three accelerators housed within the lab. Robert also has developed interest in the advancement of SRF technology into industry focusing specifically on projects that remove the dependence of cryo-plants on such systems, using cryocoolers as alternatives. Mr. Berry has a deep appreciation for the nuances in system operation that are not always clearly captured in the upfront engineering and physics but need to be sussed out through operation.

Sergey Kutsaev, PhD. (RF Group Leader) has more than 15 years of experience in accelerator physics, including as an RF Engineer at ScanTech Sciences and at the Argonne National Laboratory. Dr. Kutsaev graduated Summa Cum Laude from the National Research Nuclear University (MEPhI) in Moscow, Russia, and holds a doctoral degree in accelerator physics. He then developed an accelerator system for Homeland Security applications. His work includes RF, THz optics, quantum computing, electronics, electromagnetic design, multiphysics and beam dynamics simulations and software technologies. Dr. Kutsaev published about 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is a reviewer for such journals as Physical Reviews, Journal of Instrumentation and Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research. At RadiaBeam, Dr. Kutsaev oversees companywide efforts on accelerator systems design. He has developed several commercial products, including medical accelerators, with the latest example of a thermionic RF gun, delivered and installed in APS injectors at ANL. Two more guns were purchased afterwards. For his achievements in accelerator physics, Dr. Kutsaev was elected as an IEEE Senior Member in 2020.

Paul Carriere (Materials and Process Engineer) Dr Carriere received his doctorate in Materials Engineering from McGill University under supervision of Prof Stephen Yue- Trottier Chair of Aerospace Engineering. His dissertation concerned electron beam welding and additive manufacturing of titanium alloys and powders. He received his masters from McGill concerning electron beam physical vapor deposition of ceramic thermal barrier coatings for hot section aero-turbine blades. Prior to graduate studies, Dr Carriere worked as a research engineer at Cornell focusing on niobium superconducting RF accelerators. Dr Carriere also worked at D-Wave Systems, Canada assisting in cryogenic system design for superconducting quantum computing. Dr Carriere’s primary areas of interests are multi-physics component testing, joining processes, precision electro-mechanical engineering, material processing and characterization. Paul enjoys road trips which include camping, hiking with dogs, mountain biking and campfire cooking.

Sargis Khavilov (Controller) has over 20 years of international accounting experience. After getting a degree in finance from university in Moscow in 1998, Sargis moved to California. He then got an accounting degree and shortly thereafter joined RadiaBeam. The technical aspects really interest Sargis, but only as a hobby. “They call me the money guy” he says with a laugh. He has been with RadiaBeam over 12 years, handling in-house accounting, purchasing, contract management, commercial product development/sales, R&D, and SBIR grants from government agencies such as the DOE and DOD.

Gerard Andonian (Associate Scientist) received his PhD in Physics from UCLA in 2006. His scientific interests in accelerator physics include advanced acceleration concepts and particle beam manipulation techniques using wakefields from structures or plasmas. He has performed work at various national laboratories in the US including SLAC, BNL, and ANL. He has presented work at many conferences, served as group leader in workshops, and authored numerous journal publications, conference proceedings, and review articles. He sits on program review panels and scientific committees, and was also a delegate for national user facilities presenting high-impact research to Congressional offices. He currently holds an appointment at UCLA where he performs research at the Particle Beam Physics Laboratory, occasionally teaches classes in physics, and mentors graduate students. At Radiabeam, he presently leads experimental projects on novel diagnostics for beamlines, wakefield acceleration of high-brightness sources, and development of beamline components for light source, nuclear, and high-energy physics facilities.

Tara Hodgetts (Senior Mechanical Engineer) received her BS in Mechanical Engineering from University of the Pacific. She is highly experienced with 3-D professional engineering systems (AutoCAD, SolidWorks). At RadiaBeam, she has worked as Lead Mechanical Engineer of the Instrumentation Department and Project Engineer responsible for ensuring the installation of collaborative experiments consisting of several universities, private companies, and national labs. For the Tapering Enhanced Stimulated Superradiant Amplification (TESSA) project, which made the cover of Nature Photonics, she co-authored several papers and gave a talk at NAPAC about its 4x 1-meter long Helical Undulator design. In addition to her work as an engineer, she has implemented, administrated, and enhanced the Engineering Department’s document management system. On occasion, she has been known to hula hoop with fire.

Alexander Smirnov (Accelerator Scientist) is a researcher/engineer who holds a Ph.D. degree in accelerator physics from NRNU MEPhI, Russia. In his early career, Alexander has worked for Siemens AG, Germany, as RF engineer specializing in high-power solid-state RF amplifiers. He joined RadiaBeam in 2016 and is putting extensive work on development, tuning and testing of tens of accelerating and deflecting RF cavities. Dr. Smirnov serves as a PI or leading engineer in multiple DOE-sponsored projects that are focused on high-power solid-state RF and pulsed sources, THz radiation, SRF qubits, XFEL undulator and non-linear magnetic optics. He is an author of about 30 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is a reviewer in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research.