Saul Griffith Explained

Saul Griffith
Birth Place:Sydney, Australia
Field:Material science
Alma Mater:University of New South Wales (B.MET.E)
University of Sydney (M.E.)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
Known For:Energy conservation, Howtoons
Prizes:MacArthur Fellowship (2007)

Saul Griffith (born 1974) is an Australian–American inventor and renewable electricity advocate.[1] He is the founder or co-founder of multiple companies, including Otherlab (where he is currently CEO), Makani Power, and Instructables.

Education

In 2000, Griffith graduated from the University of Sydney with a Master of Engineering degree.[2] He won a scholarship to MIT Media Lab to study towards a PhD that he completed in 2004. The subject of his PhD thesis was "self-replicating machines". They were one of the first instances of artificial replication being demonstrated using real physics.[3]

Projects

Griffith is the co-founder and CEO of OtherLab, a research and development company working on computational manufacturing and design tools[4] and applying those tools to projects such as inflatable pneumatic robots and prostheses,[5] novel approaches to heliostat design,[6] and applications of computational origami to the design of pressure vessels (e.g. for compressed natural gas) in arbitrary shapes.[7] Otherlab's R&D is guided by a vast map of energy flows in the US economy,[8] which they use to identify key leverage points in building a more sustainable energy economy.

Griffith used this energy flow mapping for Rewiring America, a nonprofit organization working on electrification. He argues that the United States can create 30 million jobs, save consumers money, boost energy resiliency, and accelerate achievement of a net zero economy.[9] [10]

Previously, he was a co-founder of Squid Labs,[11] and its spinout companies and projects Makani Power,[12] Instructables, Wattzon, HowToons, OptiOpia, Potenco, Sunfolding, Other Machine Company and Monkeylectric.[13] [14]

Personal life

Griffith used to live in San Francisco.[15] As of 2022, he has relocated to Australia, living in Wollongong.

He is married to Tim O'Reilly's daughter Arwen.[16] He has two children.[17]

Griffith's mother is a wildlife artist, early Greenpeace activist and printmaker, while his father is a retired professor.[18]

A portrait of Griffith by artist Jude Rae was highly commended in the 2022 Archibald Prize.[19]

Publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Seccombe . Mike . 2022-02-05 . The Joe Biden adviser living in Wollongong . 2022-06-17 . The Saturday Paper . en.
  2. Web site: Meet the class of 2007: Saul Griffith . MacArthur Fellows Program . . 28 January 2007 . 21 June 2017 .
  3. Griffith . Saul . Growing Machines . September 2004 . 18 November 2024 . PhD . .
  4. Web site: Projects . otherlab.com.
  5. Web site: Solve for X: Saul Griffith on inflatable robots . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/tqP3IpEqkk4. 2021-12-12 . live. youtube.com.
  6. Web site: Novel, Disruptive Approaches to Heliostat Design . sunfolding.com.
  7. Web site: Conformable Tank . otherlab.com.
  8. Web site: Peters . Adele . This Very, Very Detailed Chart Shows How All The Energy In The U.S. Is Used . Fast Company . August 9, 2016 . November 14, 2018.
  9. Web site: Rewiring America.
  10. Web site: Roberts. David. August 6, 2020. How to drive fossil fuels out of the US economy, quickly: The US has everything it needs to decarbonize by 2035. Vox.
  11. billysorrentino . Rogue Inventor Saul Griffith Is Radicalizing R&D — With Inflatable Arms . en-US . Wired . 2022-06-17 . 1059-1028.
  12. Web site: Makani . 2022-06-17 . X, the moonshot factory . en.
  13. Web site: Holthouse . David . How $500,000 can save the world . Fortune Small Business . September 19, 2010 . December 6, 2007.
  14. Web site: Coxon . Sara-Katherine . 2020-07-22 . Saul Griffith . 2022-06-17 . Climate One . en.
  15. September 15, 2010 . The Colbert Report . The Colbert Report . Comedy Central . September 15, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160729200449/http://www.cc.com/video-clips/n9nk9d/the-colbert-report-saul-griffith. dead. July 29, 2016.
  16. Owen . David . The Inventor's Dilemma . The New Yorker . May 17, 2010 . November 14, 2018.
  17. Web site: Kalish . Jon . 2019-06-14 . Inside Otherlab's World of Flying Inventions and Elastic Machines . 2022-06-17 . PCMag UK . en-gb.
  18. News: Pannett . Rachel . 2021-05-29 . An Australian inventor wants to stop global warming by electrifying everything . The Washington Post . 2022-06-17 . https://archive.today/20210529005356/https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/saul-griffith-mass-electrification/#selection-641.278-641.357 . 2021-05-29.
  19. Web site: Archibald Prize Archibald 2022 work: The big switch – portrait of Dr Saul Griffith by Jude Rae . 2023-03-04 . www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au . en.
  20. Book: Griffith . Saul . Electrify: an optimist's playbook for our clean energy future . 12 October 2021 . The MIT Press . 978-0-262-54504-4 . Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. ISBN for paperback edition.

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