Dr. Daniel Cunningham is the Deputy Director for Technology at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), U.S. Department of Energy. Cunningham was previously the Acting Deputy Director for Commercialization.

Before ARPA-E, he worked at BP plc in the Chief Scientist’s Office as Emerging Technology Advisor evaluating new energy technologies in areas such as energy storage, alternative fuels pathways, and remote sensing, assessing their future business impact. Dr. Cunningham also worked at BP Solar Inc., serving in multiple capacities, including Director of Product Development leading a multidisciplinary team to develop new technologies for BP Solar’s product line. He also took on the role of Director of Technology where he led an R&D engineering team develop and manufacture electrochemically deposited, thin-film CdTe devices for use in photovoltaic applications. He received a Research Partnership Award in 2001 from the U.S. Department of Energy for work in this area. He has extensive experience in semiconductor crystal growth and processing, including PV module packaging and product reliability. Dr. Cunningham has authored over 70 publications, 12 patent publications, and co-editor of the 2023 Springer book, “Direct Current Fault Protection”.

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 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry with Chartered Chemist (CChem) status.