KEARNY, N.J., Nov. 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Thea Energy, a fusion power company advancing the stellarator for the commercialization of an abundant source of baseload energy, today announced the appointment of Pat Schweiger as chief engineer. Schweiger joins Thea Energy from Oklo, where he served as chief technology officer, and brings more than 40 years of experience designing, building, and operating power plants.

As chief engineer, Schweiger is Thea Energy's design authority for its systems, accountable for integration as the Company moves from demonstrated magnet hardware to its large-scale stellarator, “Eos,” and its first power plant, “Helios.”

Schweiger was previously chief engineer at Commonwealth Fusion Systems, where he built the engineering organization to more than 400 people and led the design and construction of a high-field tokamak. He has directed engineering for laser, field-reversed configuration, and stellarator approaches to fusion, and held senior roles across the energy sector including senior VP of engineering at TerraPower. He began his career at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fast Flux Test Facility, testing fusion-relevant advanced materials as well as fuels, components, protocols, and safety designs.

“Fusion will deliver on-the-grid power within the next decade. The companies that deliver will earn trust through engineering discipline,” said Brian Berzin, co-founder and chief executive officer of Thea Energy. “Pat chose Thea Energy because our architecture is designed to be practical, and because we are executing. Since our Series B in May, we've won an award from the U.S. government to expand our magnet production lines, launched a stellarator digital twin with NVIDIA, Synopsys, and two national laboratories, and confirmed that our Eos magnets meet their field-strength and precision requirements. Pat will help us carry that pace into construction.”

“My career started at a plant that tested materials for fusion, and it brings me back to fusion at a moment when the industry has to keep its promises,” Schweiger added. “I have worked on nearly every approach to fusion. I believe Thea Energy’s power plants can be built, maintained, and deployed at the scale and cost the world demands.”

Thea Energy's stellarator replaces the complex three-dimensional magnets of prior generations with flat coils made on conventional production lines and controlled by software. Its AI-native approach corrects for manufacturing variation and wear, so the plant is simpler to build, maintain, and operate. Thea Energy power plants are modular by design, continue to improve through post-construction iteration, and remain cost-effective at scale.

Schweiger's appointment is the latest in a series of senior hires as Thea Energy builds the team needed to take its plants from design into construction. The Company recently passed 100 employees, extended its Series B round in August, and received an award from ARPA-E's SCALEUP program. In September, Fusion Engineering and Design published a special issue of 16 peer-reviewed papers on Helios, detailing the engineering needed for commercial deployment. Eos, the Company's integrated stellarator, uses the same planar coil architecture as Helios and is designed to achieve world-leading, power-plant-relevant fusion performance. Eos is targeted to come online by 2030, with Helios on the grid in the 2030s.

About Thea Energy, Inc.

Thea Energy, Inc. is commercializing scalable and economical fusion energy systems via its planar coil stellarator architecture. Thea Energy’s stellarator power plants will uniquely provide an abundant and safe source of zero-emission energy for the future of humanity. The Company has utilized arrays of mass-manufacturable magnets and dynamic software controls to reinvent the stellarator.

Thea Energy spun out of Princeton University and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in 2022 to commercialize the stellarator, a mature magnetic confinement fusion architecture. The Company was selected as an inaugural awardee of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program following a detailed merit review process, and is also supported via nine Department of Energy INFUSE awards and an ARPA-E SCALEUP award. Thea Energy is currently collaborating with leading national labs, academic institutions, and industrial partners to commercialize fusion energy on the fastest and most efficient path.

To learn more about Thea Energy’s mission, visit thea.energy and follow us on LinkedIn and X. 

Media Contact

Madeline Joanis
maddy@thea.energy