INFN-LNF Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati
Prof. Rodolfo Bonifacio died, aged 76, few days ago in Rome. Since many years he was Associated Emeritus to the National Laboratory of Frascati. He leaves us a legacy of strong passion for physics and for scientific challenges. His contributions to Atomic Laser and Free Electron Laser physics have been profound and seminal, notably in the 1984 paper, together with Pellegrini and Narducci, “Collective instabilities and high-gain regime in a free electron laser”, (Optics Communications 50 (6), 373-378), that paved the road to a new generation of radiation sources (LCLS, XFEL). In our Labs he was always excited by research and by the contact with the young generations of physicists.
We like to remember his last “eretic” talk – as he liked to call it – “What is time ?” held last June in Touschek Auditorium, which can be found at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzKO7Tfmpmg
The National Laboratory of Frascati expresses their condolences to the family.