Leadership

Michl Binderbauer is Chief Executive Officer of TAE Technologies and co-inventor of many of the company’s technological advances in fusion energy, power management, and particle accelerators.

TAE was founded in 1998 to create a completely safe, sustainable, non-radioactive source of nuclear energy, capable of powering the planet for centuries. Over the last two decades, Michl has evolved TAE into a fusion industry leader and expanded the company’s technology portfolio to include power management solutions for electric mobility, grid storage and efficiency, and more.

While serving as TAE’s Chief Technology Officer, Michl spearheaded a partnership with Google to apply machine learning and AI technology to fusion research. In 2014, TAE and Google jointly developed the Optometrist Algorithm, which dramatically accelerated TAE’s technological advances by combining human and computer intelligence to exponentially improve the efficiency of TAE’s fusion energy development program.

From 2015 to 2017, drawing upon his previous experience in healthcare and infection control startups in both Europe and the United States, Michl guided the development of TAE’s first subsidiary, TAE Life Sciences. TAE Life Sciences is a medical startup that leverages TAE’s patented particle accelerator beam technology for a promising cancer treatment that selectively targets tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue.

Michl became CEO of TAE in 2018 and holds well over 100 U.S. and international technology patents. He has published many papers in the world’s leading peer-reviewed scientific journals, including Science, Physical Review Letters, Nature Communications, and more. He has been featured in press coverage highlighting the potential and prowess of TAE’s approach to fusion, including a cover story in Time magazine, The New York Times, Financial Times, National Geographic, Science and PBS NewsHour. Michl is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the American Physical Society. He is a recipient of UC Irvine’s prestigious Lauds & Laurels Award, and was an inaugural inductee into the UCI School of Physical Sciences Hall of Fame. He also serves on the school’s Industry Advisory Board on the Dean’s Executive Cabinet.

Michl earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Irvine, under the guidance of fusion energy pioneer and TAE’s technology co-founder Dr. Norman Rostoker.

Dr. Toshiki Tajima has worked on the physics of Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) for many years, with research focused on reconnection, tilting, current drive, RF transport, advanced fuel, transport scaling, fast particle heating, and fusion energy conversion. He also advises on TAE Technologies’ corporate strategy and has served as Chief Science Officer since joining the company in 2011.

He has won numerous accolades for his scientific work, including the Nishina Memorial Prize, the Enrico Fermi Prize, Chandrasekhar Prize, APS Robert Wilson Prize, Alfven Prize, Charles Townes Award, the Blaise Pascal Chair, and the Einstein professorship. He has authored 12 books and more than 600 papers, including work published in Physical Review Letters and The Astrophysical Journal. He is also a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the National Academy of Sciences U.S. Liaison Committee with the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics, and a member of U.S. Exascale Computing Project (ECP) Industry-Agency Council.

Before joining TAE Technologies, Toshiki worked on plasma transport physics and particle simulation of plasma. In 1979, while working with J.M. Dawson at the University of California Los Angeles, Toshiki invented laser electron acceleration, a groundbreaking innovation in the plasma field. Relying on computer simulations, they proposed using high-power electromagnetic radiation from lasers to accelerate electrons to high energies.

After completing a bachelor of science and masters degrees in physics at the University of Tokyo, Toshiki earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine, where he was the first Irvine-educated Ph.D. student under Professor Norman Rostoker, TAE’s technology co-founder. He is the first Norman Rostoker Chair Professor of Physics and Astronomy at UC Irvine.

Dr. Artem Smirnov is a Chief Technology Officer at TAE Technologies, where he is leading a team of more than 200 scientists and engineers pursuing disruptive R&D and technology commercialization projects in fusion energy, cancer therapy, data science, and more.

He joined TAE Technologies as a scientist in 2006 and over the years contributed to the development of TAE’s accelerator technology, plasma confinement and stabilization techniques, and plasma diagnostics.

Since 2015, Artem has led commercialization of TAE technologies in adjacent markets. Artem became the Founding Director of TAE Life Sciences in 2017, providing leadership, management of strategic partnerships and support of product development. TAE Life Sciences is a medical startup that leverages TAE’s patented particle accelerator beam technology for a promising cancer treatment that selectively targets tumor cells while sparing healthy tissue.

Artem holds several technology patents and has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications. He holds a Ph.D. in plasma physics from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Dr. R. David Edelman serves as TAE’s Chief Policy & Global Affairs Officer, leading the teams responsible for public sector, public trust, international relations, and global strategic affairs.

A longtime advisor to TAE, David joined the company following five years of teaching and leading research on emerging technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he remains an IPRI Distinguished Fellow.

In prior roles in the private sector, he has served as the chief architect and strategist of public trust, safety, and initiatives at high-growth startups in the AI, robotics, and clean energy spaces. In the public sector, David served for over six years in the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Economic & Technology Policy, Director for Cybersecurity on the National Security Council, and Senior Advisor in the Office of Science & Technology Policy. He began his career at the State Department as one of the founding members of the Department’s office of cyber affairs, and later served as the lead U.S. negotiator on Internet issues at the United Nations.

He also sits on the boards of the Fusion Industry Association, Electric Power Engineers, Partium, and the non-profit Freedom Forum.

David holds a B.A. from Yale, and a Master’s and Doctorate degree from Oxford University, where he was a Clarendon Scholar.

Janet Leong joined TAE Technologies in 2022 as the company’s Chief Human Resources Officer. She brings more than 25 years of experience building human resources teams and focuses on creating strong employee cultures. She consistently partners to create successful talent focused organizations, revamped rewards and recognition programs, and driven diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Prior to TAE, Janet worked in leadership roles at several technology companies including CoreLogic, Experian, and most recently as VP of Human Resources for Spireon, a leading vehicle telematics company.

Janet earned a degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and also earned CPA and PHR certifications.

Jack M. Margo is a technologist who has served in various engineering and leadership capacities throughout his career. Jack has been with TAE Technologies since 2019, when he joined as Vice President of Information Systems, and he now serves in a dual-capacity role as Chief Information and Chief Security Officer.

His expertise spans media, product, and information services, as he’s spent years working on large-scale projects for the likes of CBS Sportsline, Prodigy, AOL, Ziff-Davis, and Sonos. Immediately prior to joining TAE, Jack was responsible for the customer-facing, infrastructure teams at Sonos, providing secure, reliable, and measurable systems to over 18 million IoT devices. Jack graduated from Nova Southeastern University with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts.

Ken Roberts is General Counsel of TAE Technologies and has served the company as Intellectual Property Counsel in varying capacities since 2000.

Prior to joining TAE, Ken was a partner at the law firms of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, and Lyon & Lyon LLP, where he provided intellectual property counsel services to several companies and universities. Ken started his career as a patent and trademark attorney at Lyon & Lyon in 1993.

Ken graduated cum laude with a J.D. from the University of San Diego Law School and earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech.

Jonathan Toretta joined TAE in 2019 as the Senior Vice President of Global Business Development, a position that has since expanded to include oversight and responsibility for TAE revenue and TAE’s global offices.

An experienced global energy equity specialist in public and private markets, Jonathan maintains strong relationships with global corporate leadership, global investors and other vital members of the finance and energy industries. He has served as an expert advisor in the energy and financial services sector.

Prior to TAE Technologies, he was global energy equity specialist at Societe Generale, Corporate & Investment Banking, in London and New York, a VP at IHS Herold and Manager at Royal Dutch Shell.

Jonathan graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with and earned an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. He is a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar (1999-2000) and is native to Greenwich, CT and Zurich, Switzerland.

Michael Meekins has led research and development at TAE since 2019, shaping the talented engineering department tasked with designing and building the company’s groundbreaking fusion research reactors and cancer treatment technologies.

Michael joined TAE in 2005 and laid the foundation of the engineering department before being invited to join the international nuclear fusion research and engineering project ITER, headquartered in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France. After five years there, Michael returned to TAE to build the C-2W machine in 2015.

Michael has also coordinated the engineering, fabrication and installation of TAE Life Sciences’ medical particle accelerator, part of the Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) for cancer treatment, in Novosibirsk, Russia and Xiamen, China.

Michael brings a wealth of expertise and experience to TAE, with training in nuclear fusion safety analysis, risk management, program management, fabrication of ultra-high vacuum equipment, high consequence rigging and lifting, welding, machining and advanced manufacturing techniques. He is named in numerous patents and has had his research published in respected journals, including Physics of Plasmas, Structural Engineering International, Physics Procedia, and Physical Review Letters.

Prior to joining TAE, Michael worked for Lockheed Martin and Archimedes Technology Group.

Michael earned a B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Sergei Putvinski works as TAE’s Vice President of Applied Science and Technology, bringing a wealth of professional experience and research knowledge to the role.

Sergei’s specific areas of research include design of experimental tokamaks and tokamak reactors, physics of burning plasmas in tokamaks, plasma MHD equilibrium, plasma stability and transport, and physics of energetic particles. He has extensive experience in analysis, numerical modeling, simulation and interpretation of plasma experimental results.

Prior to working for TAE Technologies, Sergei worked as Senior Scientific Officer for Particle Physics at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France. He has also worked for the Joint European Torus (JET) project, Archimedes Nuclear Waste LLC, .

Sergei is the author of more than 100 publications in scientific journals, with more than a dozen U.S. and Russian patents.

Sergei earned his doctor of science degree in plasma physics and chemistry in 1990, and a Ph.D. in plasma physics in 1976, both from the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. He earned his master of science in mathematical physics and aerodynamics from the Moscow Physics-Technical Institute in 1971.

As the Intellectual Property Counsel and Vice President for TAE Power Solutions, Mark Stirrat oversees all patent and trade secret portfolios for the company. A seasoned attorney with scientific training, Mark has spent two decades in private practice with a focus on patent procurement, reexaminations, due diligence, litigation and licensing.

His deep expertise in all aspects of the patent life cycle has been utilized to build patent portfolios for both established and start-up tech organizations, negotiate global patent cross-licenses between Fortune 500 companies, and litigate patent infringement lawsuits in Federal Court.

Mark’s strong background in engineering enriches his approach to patent law. Before practicing law, he was a product and IP engineer in the semiconductor industry.

Mark earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Purdue University and his JD from the University of San Diego School of Law.

Stephen joined TAE in 2022, and brings over 30 years of accounting and finance experience to the company. He has experience working for small, start-up private companies as well as mid-size publicly traded companies in the life science and medical device industries.

In addition to helping build pre-revenue companies, Stephen’s accounting background includes initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, international consolidations and Securities and Exchange Commission reporting.

Stephen is an active Certified Public Accountant with a bachelor of science in accounting from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.