U.S. IFE 2026 Conference Summary
Washington, DC
March 22-27, 2026
US IFE Conference Focuses a National Effort
Bringing the National IFE Community Together
More than 225 scientists, engineers, students, industry partners, and Department of Energy representatives gathered in the Washington, D.C. area March 22–27 for the U.S. IFE Conference — the second annual convening of the national inertial fusion energy community, formerly known as the IFE-STAR Conference. Organized through the LLE and held at the Hilton DC/Rockville, the week combined a rigorous technical program with a focus on building the cross-institutional relationships the field will need as it scales.
A Broad National Research Program
The conference opened with U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) leaders J.P. Allain and Kramer Akli outlining current U.S. fusion strategy and mapping the evolving IFE ecosystem. Nine national laboratories contributed talks across a technical program spanning target physics, theory and simulation, AI and machine learning, driver development, systems engineering, and fusion materials — a breadth that reflects how far the field has moved from foundational science toward the engineering demands of a working power plant.
Universities presented topics from final optics design to open-source chamber modeling to the societal dimensions of fusion deployment. Thursday morning brought all three DOE-funded research hubs — STARFIRE, IFE-COLoR, and RISE — together for their halfway-mark reports, offering a clear picture of how the national IFE program fits together.
Industry and International Perspectives
Private industry also presented technical sessions, with major IFE companies sharing progress on pilot-plant design, high-repetition-rate target systems, and fuel cycle development. International contributions addressed industrialization pathways and large-scale experimental infrastructure.
“Most conferences in this field go deep on one area — target physics, or drivers, or materials,” said Dustin Froula, principal investigator for the IFE-COLoR hub at LLE and chair of the conference organizing committee. “This one is deliberately different. The U.S. IFE conference brings the entire technical community into the same room, because that cross-exposure is exactly what the field needs right now. We’re at a point where the science is no longer the only question. The engineering is real, the industry is here, and the path to a power plant is coming into focus. Fusion energy is a system that needs people who see the big picture.”
Engaging the Next Generation
Student and early-career researchers were central to the week. A graduate student poster slam featured participants delivering two-slide presentations in five minutes before continuing their conversations at the poster sessions that followed.
Those sessions — three in total, with more than 100 posters presented across the week — drew contributors from across the U.S. and internationally, covering the full spectrum of IFE research from target fabrication and plasma physics to chamber modeling and workforce development. Eleven students, from high school through graduate level, were recognized for outstanding research contributions.
Looking Ahead
The next US IFE Conference will return to Washington, D.C. in 2027.
