Dr. Ryan Chaban is the Director, Fusion Prize Development at XPRIZE within the Energy + Climate + Nature domain. He is designing the competition that will pull commercial fusion into reality faster than it would arrive on its own. Ryan believes in a future of energy abundance, and sees fusion as the source capable of bringing about a new age of prosperity.

He previously spent nearly three years as an ARPA-E Fellow scouting high-risk, high-impact energy technologies across fusion, fission, nuclear waste, geothermal, grid, and critical minerals. He reviewed more than 250 proposals, contributed technical writing to over $100 million in federal funding opportunities, and designed the agency's plasma chemistry program from unformed whitespace to a program ready to launch.

Ryan is a plasma physicist by training, earning his Ph.D. in Physics from William & Mary. He was awarded runtime on the DIII-D tokamak for his primary work to design and run the first isotope-matched pedestal experiment, producing the first direct experimental evidence that fueling depends on neutral particle mass. He also worked on the MAST tokamak in the UK, and holds a B.S.E. in Engineering Physics from Case Western Reserve University.

Combining his love for energy and teaching, he holds an adjunct appointment at Georgetown University, instructing and designing a course in Clean Energy Innovation. Outside of work, Ryan officiates NCAA field hockey and lacrosse, and competes in triathlons.