About This Event
Join Fusion Industry founders, engineers, scientists and energy policymakers for a overview of the Fusion Energy Landscape - the different technical approaches to unlocking nearly limitless clean grid-scale base power by harnessing the power of the Sun right here on Earth.
The goal of this event is to give you a crash course in the different approaches to fusion, the trade-offs between them, the current state of technical progress made by private commercial fusion companies, and the regulatory, commercial, and capital landscape they jointly face.
Agenda:
12:30 - 1:00PM - Doors Open
1:00 - 2:15PM - Technical talks on general overview of approaches to, blanket design, fuel enrichment, tokamaks, and stellarators
2:15 - 2:30PM - Break
2:30 - 3:30PM - Technical talks on magneto-inertial fusion, electrostatic confinement, laser inertial confinement, MagLif, Z-Pinch, Magnetic Mirrors
3:30 - 4:00PM - Break
4:00 - 5:00PM - Panel discussion
Andrew Holland, President of Fusion Industry Association
Sally Benson, Professor at Stanford and Chief Strategist for Energy Transition at the White House OSTP
Ahmed Diallo, Program Director ARPA-E
Darren Woulfe, Head of Commonwealth Fusion Magnet Business
David Gates, former PPPL Scientist and CTO of Thea Energy
Malcolm Handley early-stage Fusion Investor
This event is part of a larger event series highlighting the frontiers of deep-tech development in San Francisco, SF Deep Tech Week
This event is kindly sponsored by Gigascale Capital.
Gigascale Capital backs climate companies that make the clean option a no-brainer choice. Our team brings deep and diverse operator experience to help founders gigascale game-changing solutions, including fusion. We typically invest in companies from Pre-Seed to Series A, embrace scientific and technical challenges, and actively support fast-growing operations.
Speakers
Andrew Holland
CEO · Fusion Industry Association
Andrew Holland is the founding Chief Executive Officer of the Fusion Industry Association (FIA), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit trade organization representing over 40 private fusion companies and 100 affiliates worldwide, dedicated to accelerating the commercialization of fusion energy through advocacy for supportive policies, public-private partnerships, regulatory certainty, and equitable treatment alongside other clean technologies to deliver abundant, safe, carbon-free power in the coming decades. With more than two decades at the nexus of energy policy, climate change, national security, and international strategy—including prior roles as Chief Operating Officer of the American Security Project (where he authored a seminal 2013 report outlining a 10-year plan for U.S. fusion leadership) and legislative aide on energy and environment for Senator Chuck Hagel—Holland has been instrumental in shaping fusion's rise from government-led research to a vibrant private industry, influencing milestones like separate NRC regulations for fusion, increased federal funding, and global collaborations. A holder of an MSc in International Strategy and Economics from the University of St. Andrews and member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, he frequently speaks on fusion's transformative potential at forums like the IAEA and pens op-eds urging infrastructure-scale investment to secure American leadership in this revolutionary energy frontier.
Brian Riordan
Co-Founder & COO · Avalanche Energy
Brian Riordan is the Co-Founder and COO of Avalanche Energy, building micro-fusion reactors (Orbitron) that you can hold in your hands—free of high-powered magnets or lasers, designed to be easily manufacturable and transportable. Brian and co-founder Robin Langtry met at Blue Origin, where both worked on rocket propulsion systems. Brian started his career in deep subsea oil and gas, pivoting to aerospace with side hustles along the way. Motivated by climate change and receding glaciers in his home state of Alaska, Avalanche has raised $45M+ and focuses on mobile power for space and underwater applications.
Ahmed Diallo
Program Director · ARPA-E
Dr. Ahmed Diallo is a Program Director at the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), where he spearheads high-risk, high-reward initiatives to accelerate the commercialization of fusion energy through transformative R&D, overseeing portfolios that bridge innovative diagnostics, materials, and power plant technologies to enable grid-scale electricity from fusion. A Distinguished Research Fellow and Principal Research Physicist at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) since 2009—where he previously headed the Advanced Diagnostics Development Division and served as Deputy Director of the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) public-private partnership—Diallo has pioneered laser-aided, X-ray, and other cutting-edge diagnostic tools advancing magnetic fusion plasmas, high-energy-density physics, microelectronics, and quantum computing. Born in Burkina Faso and inspired by the quest for abundant clean energy in underserved regions, he earned a PhD in physics from the University of Iowa after earlier studies in Burkina Faso and Montana, followed by postdoctoral work at the Swiss Plasma Center and Australian National University; honored with the DOE Early Career Award, Oppenheimer Fellowship, and over 140 publications, Diallo passionately drives the fusion ecosystem toward rapid milestones for a sustainable energy future.
