Mike Dunne is an expert in the design, construction and operation of large-scale research facilities. He is a co-founder of Inertia, and serves as their CTO and SVP for Fusion Power, where his role is to ensure timely delivery of the fusion power plant. He is also a tenured professor of photon science at Stanford University. Most recently, Dunne was the Director of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) – a multi-billion dollar international research facility that has opened up transformational opportunities for the study of biomedical science, quantum materials, catalytic chemistry, atomic physics, and fusion plasma science. Dunne was Director for Laser Fusion Energy at LLNL, where he developed an integrated fusion power plant design to ensure full advantage can be taken of the National Ignition Facility, working with over 70 vendor partners, electric utility companies, national labs and universities. In the UK, Mike served as Director of the UK’s Central Laser Facility (CLF), overseeing the development of some of the world’s most powerful lasers. He led a consortium of 26 institutions across 7 countries to develop the design for a European laser fusion power plant project (HiPER). He spent 10 years at AWE Aldermaston, where he led their plasma science research group and played a major role in establishing the scope and mission of the ORION laser facility to preserve the UK’s national capability in this important area of strategic deterrence. From there, he moved into a position developing AWE’s strategy and assessment of their overall technical capability to meet the demands of future missions beyond the Trident warhead. Dunne obtained his doctorate in laser fusion and laboratory astrophysics from Imperial College, London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, has received a number of international awards, and is the author of 250 scientific papers, patents, and book and encyclopedia chapters – and has featured in dozens of articles in the popular press.