Speaker Bio

Climate, energy generation and energy use are intricately linked. If we were to task engineers with solving the climate problem, what would the task look like? On the energy- generation side of the equation, how do we work backward from where we'd like the planet to be in order to figure out what we have to do today?

Saul Griffith is the President and Chief Scientist at Makani Power. He has multiple degrees in materials science and mechanical engineering and completed his Ph.D. in Programmable Assembly and Self Replicating machines at MIT. He is the co-founder of numerous companies including: Optiopia, Squid Labs, Potenco, Instructables.com, HowToons and Makani Power. Saul has been awarded numerous awards for invention including the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Collegiate Inventor's award, and the Lemelson-MIT Student prize. Recently, he has been named a MacArthur Fellow. Saul holds multiple patents and patents pending in textiles, optics, nanotechnology, and energy production. Saul co-authors children's comic books called HowToons, about building your own science and engineering gadgets, with Nick Dragotta and Joost Bonsen. Saul is a technical advisor to Make magazine and Popular Mechanics.