David Kirtley
David Kirtley studied electrical engineering at the University of Texas Dallas and then nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan, where he published his first paper on antimatter-based fusion as an undergraduate. He worked on Hall-effect and plasma thrusters for spacecraft at the Air Force Research Labs and at MSNW in Redmond, Washington — a University of Washington-affiliated plasma physics research organization — before co-founding Helion Energy in 2013. Kirtley and his co-founders collectively accumulated 30 years of fusion experience before launching the company. He leads Helion's field-reversed configuration approach to fusion and has secured a power purchase agreement with Microsoft.