Broadway Bites: Laser-Guided Lightning
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Event, Academia Broadway Bites: Laser-Guided Lightning
Hear from Swiss scientist Farhad Rachidi about his research on lightning protection, including the Laser Lightning Rod.
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Since its ancient depiction as the weapon of gods, lightning has been an object of fear and fascination. But beyond its dramatic visual impact, lightning poses very real threats to human life, buildings, and infrastructure. Approximately 250,000 people are killed or injured every year by lightning strikes, and lightning-caused wildfires burn more than 4 million acres annually, nearly the size of Massachusetts. As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of severe storms, lightning protection is more important than ever.
In this edition of Broadway Bites, we are joined by Farhad Rachidi, Professor of Electrical Engineering and head of the Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) Group at EPFL. A leading expert in lightning and lightning protection, Rachidi was part of the international “Laser Lightning Rod” project that demonstrated the first successful use of a high-powered laser to capture and guide multiple lightning bolts atop the Säntis mountain in eastern Switzerland. Join us to learn about his research, and the latest in lightning science.
Broadway Bites is a monthly seminar series at Swissnex, bringing guest speakers from our global network to give a short talk on their work.
Program
- 12:00pm – Doors open
- 12:15pm – Lunch & Presentation
- 12:40pm – Conversation
- 1:30pm – End
iCal / Outlook
Event start time
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Boston
12:00PM
Speaker
Farhad Rachidi
Farhad Rachidi received his Ph.D. from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 1991. Following a postdoctoral position at the University of Toronto, Canada, he returned to Switzerland, where he spent a couple of years in industry before rejoining EPFL. He is currently a Titular Professor and Head of the Electromagnetic Compatibility Laboratory at EPFL. His research interests include lightning electromagnetics, humanitarian demining, time-reversal theory and its applications to source localization. He has authored or co-authored over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 400 papers presented at international conferences.
Farhad Rachidi has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Blondel Medal from the French Association of Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Information Technology and Communication (2006), the Berger Award from the International Conference on Lightning Protection (2016), and the Motohisa Kanda Award for the most cited paper in the IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility. In 2019, he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Bologna Institute, and in 2024, he was appointed Distinguished Honorary Professor at Tsinghua University.
He has served in several leadership roles, including Vice-Chair of the European COST Action on the Physics of Lightning Flash and its Effects (2005–2009), Chairman of the 2008 European Electromagnetics International Symposium, and President of the International Conference on Lightning Protection (2008–2014). He also served as President of the Swiss National Committee of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) from 2012 to 2020.