Dr. Ahmed was born and raised in the land of Pyramids, Egypt. He obtained his B.E. and M.S. degrees from Shoubra Faculty of Engineering, Benha University and Faculty of Engineering, Ain-Shams University, respectively. He moved to Caltech in 2015 as a graduate student and received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering and Applied Science from Caltech. For his PhD, he joined Prof. Jamie Bock’s CMB group to work on BICEP Array telescope. BICEP Array represents the current stage in the BICEP/Keck experiments to map the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) with unprecedented sensitivity levels. His Ph.D. thesis focused on the development of high sensitivity detectors and instrumentation in order to constrain the Primordial Gravitational Waves, the sign of inflation after the Big Bang that would imprint a B-mode polarization pattern on the CMB. The detection of a B-mode pattern would open a new window to probe the energy scale at the beginning of time when the universe was a mere fraction of a second old after the Big Bang. Ahmed and his team members have successfully deployed the first low frequency receiver at the South Pole during 2020 austral season and has been collecting CMB data which is being currently analyzed. 

Ahmed is a Scientist and Technologist at JPL - NASA/Caltech. He extends his Ph.D. and Postdoc work on the technology development to further unveil the secrets about the universe, and the resulting science investigation. He has co-led and contributed to various NASA and NOAA missions, including the Roman Coronagraph Instrument (CGI), AMS aircraft, Hyperspectral Microwave Imaging balloon, and INCUS DMR space projects. He has been awarded Caltech Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) study fund this year with Nobel Laureates, and wonderful team (Caltech KISS) and serves as a Co-I on advanced innovative concepts projects with NASA-JPL focused on space and lunar exploration. He works on NASA NIAC Hybrid Observatory for Earth-like Exoplanets (HOEE PI-John Mather). He is actively involved with Caltech’s Observational Cosmology group, JPL’s Microwave Science Instrument and High Contrast Imaging teams, as well as the BICEP/Keck and CMB-S4 collaborations.

For more information, please visit: https://asoliman.people.caltech.edu/

• Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology, 2023
• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, 2017
• M.S. in Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Ain shams University, Cairo, Egypt, 2014
• B.E. in Electrical and Communication Engineering, Shoubra Faculty of Engineering, Benha University, Cairo, Egypt, 2009

• Cosmic Microwave Background, Inflation, superconducting detectors, cryogenic, ground and space instrumentation.
• Hyperspectral Imaging, microwave radiometry, and remote sensing.
• Starshade, Adaptive Optics, High contrast imaging

• Astrophysics and Space Science  | Exoplanet Discovery And Science
• Earth Science  | Atmospheric Physics And Weather Processes
• Astrophysics and Space Science  | Origin, Evolution, And Structure Of The Universe (including Dark Matter, Dark Energy, And The CMB)
• Communication and Navigation  | RF And Optical Communications

• Scientist and Technologist, 2025-present
• JPL Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023-2025
• Visiting Researcher, Caltech, 2023-present
• Visiting Graduate Researcher, MIT Haystack Observatory, 2016
• Graduate Researcher, Caltech, 2015-2023

• JPL Award | JPL Innovative Concepts Team Fund Award " Novel Instrument Concept for Lunar Time Standard Using Pulsar Timing Techniques" (2025)
• JPL Award | JPL Innovative Concepts Team Fund Award " Towards a Viable Kinematic Lensing Space Instrument Concept" (2025)
• NASA Award | NASA NIAC Astrophysics (PI: John Mather) | Goddard-JPL-MIT team "Inflatable Starshades for Earth like Exoplanets" (2025)
• Professional Society and External Organization Awards | California Institute of Technology: https://kiss.caltech.edu/impact/2025_programs.html | Caltech Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) Team Study Fund Award (2025)
• NASA Award | JPL NASA Team Achievement and Excellence Award for the contribution to the successful Coronagraph instrument (CGI) functional testing of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (2024)
• NASA Award | JPL NASA Team Achievement Award for the contribution to the successful TVAC CGI instrument and delivery to NASA Goddard to be integrated to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (2024)
• Professional Society and External Organization Awards | California Institute of Technology | Caltech Graduate leadership and International Impact Award (2023)
• Professional Society and External Organization Awards | Caltech | Everhart Distinguished PhD Graduate Lecture Award (2023)
• Professional Society and External Organization Awards | The National Science Foundation and Department of Defense | The Antarctica Service Medal of the United States of America (2020), (2020)
• Professional Society and External Organization Awards | California Institute of Technology | Caltech Graduate Research Assistantship (2017)
• Paper Award | The Second Prize for the Best Student Paper Award, IEEE Asia Pacific Radio Science Conference, South Korea (2016)