Darby Dunn is the Vice President of Production at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, a clean energy startup based in Devens, MA, where she is responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations including manufacturing and facilities. Supported by the world’s leading investors and a collaborative partnership with MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the CFS team is driven by the climate change crisis to develop the fastest path to commercial fusion energy. In her previous role as Head of Manufacturing, Darby led the production of the world’s largest high-temperature superconducting magnet which successfully demonstrated the key technology needed to enable net-positive fusion energy. Before joining the CFS team in early 2019, Darby spent a decade at SpaceX developing and manufacturing the Dragon spacecraft to deliver cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station. Darby also co-founded the LGBTQ employee interest groups at both SpaceX & CFS and she is actively involved in STEM outreach events, including sitting on the Board of Directors for Out For Undergrad. She was also named to Business Insider’s list of the Most Powerful Female Engineers of 2017 and to the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders in 2018. Darby received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kazumasa IIDA
Dr. Kazumasa Iida is a full professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nihon University. He spent the University of Cambridge from 2004 to 2007 as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Prof. David A Cardwell. After spending 3.5 years in Cambridge, he joined the group led by Prof. Bernhard Holzapfel at the IFW Dresden as a senior scientist. He was appointed as an associate professor at Nagoya University in 2014 and as a full professor at Nihon University in 2022 His research experience covers a wide range of materials, involving the fabrication of Sr-ferrite magnets, the growth of garnet films for magneto-optical imaging, and the growth of HTS and Fe-based superconducting materials in the form of bulks and thin films. He has published more than 200 peer-review research papers. He is currently in the editorial board of Superconductivity.