Ahmed Diallo

Position: Program Director for ARPA-E

Affiliation: ARPA-E, PPPL

Email: adiallo@pppl.gov

Research Website: None

Dr. Ahmed Diallo currently serves as a Program Director for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). His focus at ARPA-E is on potentially transformative research & development to enable commercial fusion energy. Prior to ARPA-E, Diallo worked at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory for 13 years. He served as a Principal Research Physicist and the Head of the Advanced Diagnostics Development Division. In 2013, Diallo was awarded the U.S. Department of Energy's Early Career Research Program Award. In 2020, Diallo was awarded Distinguished Research Fellow at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Most recently, he was honored as a 2022 DOE Oppenheimer Fellow. During his tenure, Diallo pursued the development of advanced lasers, X-rays, and other diagnostics supporting microelectronics and quantum computing, high-energy-density plasmas, and magnetic fusion plasma research. He also served as the Deputy Director for the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) – a private-public partnership program, where he planned, directed, and evaluated research activities in partnership with national labs, universities, and private industries. Prior to Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Diallo served as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University, where he co-developed and installed imaging polarization interferometers to perform the proof-of-principle of 2D magnetic field pitch angle and flow measurements on fusion devices, and as a Post-Doctoral Scientist at the Swiss Plasma Center, where he developed antenna system to launch electrostatic waves in plasmas. Diallo earned his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Iowa, his Bachelor in Physics from the University of Montana, and his Diplôme d’Etudes Universitaires Générale from the University of Ouagadougou. Diallo has published more than 140 publications and frequently gives talks at conferences, meetings, and seminars as an expert in fusion energy and plasma physics.