Leslie Dewan | The Long Good of Ambitious "Failures"
Bio: Dr. Leslie Dewan is the founder of Criticality Capital, focusing on investing in carbon-free energy production, new nuclear technology, and sustainable building materials. From 2011 to 2018, she was the CEO of Transatomic Power, a company that designed safer nuclear reactors that leave behind less waste than conventional designs. Leslie received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT, with a research focus on computational nuclear materials. She also holds S.B. degrees from MIT in mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering. Before starting her Ph.D., she worked for a robotics company in Cambridge, MA, where she designed search-and-rescue robots and equipment for in-field identification of chemical and nuclear weapons. Leslie has been awarded an MIT Presidential Fellowship and a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. She has served on the MIT Corporation, MIT’s board of trustees, and is currently serving on the National Academy of Engineering’s study, "Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States." Leslie has been named a TIME Magazine "30 People Under 30 Changing the World," an MIT Technology Review "Innovator Under 35," a Forbes "30 Under 30," a National Geographic Explorer, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
Links: Criticality Capital | twitter
Summary: We underestimate the long-term good that comes from big, ambitious science and technology projects. As long as it's honest and rigorous, every experiment yields data, lessons, and directions for future research. Leslie Dewan is telling the story of one such misunderstood project: the U.S. Air Force's attempts at nuclear-powered aircraft.
Background on the efforts to create a nuclear-powered aircraft, and how those plans led to Leslie's research and company. pic.twitter.com/SWZKkfkFiW
— science better (@scibetter) January 3, 2021
How the story arc of the nuclear-powered aircraft project mirrored the trajectory of Transatomic, and how they've open-sourced their technology to help everyone learn from their work. pic.twitter.com/iLHs7UwYGJ
— science better (@scibetter) January 3, 2021