Ahmed Diallo is a staff research scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), where he serves as deputy boundary leader for the National Spherical Torus Experiment-Upgrade (NSTX-U). Diallo specializes in laser-aided plasma diagnostics and is the recipient of a 2013 Early Career Research Program grant from the DOE’s Office of Science to conduct research into understanding and controlling the volatile edge of the superhot, charged plasma gas that fuels fusion reactions.

 Diallo earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Iowa after receiving a bachelor’s degree from the University of Montana and a DEUG A diploma from the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina-Faso. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, where he designed and built electrostatic antennae for launching and investigating the physics of drift waves in the Toroidal Plasma Experiment (TORPEX). In addition, he designed and installed a laser-induced fluorescence system to probe the ion phase on TORPEX.

Diallo joined the Plasma Research Laboratory at the Australian National University as a research fellow in 2008. While there he co-designed and commissioned a 2D imaging polarization interferometer system for measuring Doppler flows and magnetic field pitch angles in fusion reactors. He joined PPPL in 2009, where his current research interests include pedestal physics, blob dynamics, thruster physics, and basic plasma phenomena.