Leland Ellison *16 PPL
Physicist, Builder, Teammate
Founding Member, Pacific Fusion
Leland Ellison has been advancing the field of fusion energy since 2005. He began his career in physics as an undergraduate researcher at the University of Colorado-Boulder and later earned his Ph.D. from the Princeton Program in Plasma Physics. Following graduate school, he joined Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he developed advanced physics codes for some of the world’s most powerful supercomputers — contributing to the first laboratory demonstration of fusion ignition. Ellison later broadened his perspective on innovation and scale-up as a research associate at Sutter Hill Ventures, working closely with early-stage startups. In 2023, he became a founding member of Pacific Fusion, a company that has raised over $900 million to commercialize fusion energy. At Pacific Fusion, he leads the Simulation and Modeling team, helping to transform the long-standing promise of clean, limitless energy into a practical reality.