Daniel Cunningham
Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E)
Deputy Director for Technology
Dr. Daniel Cunningham is the Deputy Director for Technology at the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E). He was previously the Acting the Acting Deputy Director for Commercialization. Prior to ARPA-E, he worked at BP in their Chief Scientist’s Office as Emerging Technology Advisor evaluating technologies such as energy storage, alternative fuel pathways, etc. to assess their impact on future business. Prior to this role, Cunningham spent much of his career in the solar division of BP's Alternative Energy Business. Here he served in multiple capacities, including Director of Product Development leading a multidisciplinary team to develop new technologies for BP Solar’s product line. He was responsible for bringing technologies to market, using innovative materials and manufacturing processes to enhance performance and reduce cost. He also took on the role of Director of Technology where he led a R&D engineering team developing and manufacturing electrochemically deposited thin film CdTe devices for use in photovoltaic applications in collaboration with NREL and the Institute of Energy Conversion (UoD). He received a Research Partnership Award in 2001 from the U.S. Department of Energy (EERE) for work in this area and winner of the 2010 BP Helios award for Innovation. Cunningham has extensive experience in semiconductor crystal growth and processing including PV module packaging and product reliability and has authored over 70 publications,12 patent publications, and is co-editor of "Direct Current Fault Protection" published in 2023. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry specializing in electrochemistry and in-situ reflectance spectroscopy, and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. He is also a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
