Justin hall tipping biography template
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Justin Hall-Tipping works on nano-energy startups — mastering the electron to create power.
Why you should listen
Some of our most serious planetary worries revolve around energy and power -- controlling it, paying for it, and the consequences of burning it. Justin Hall-Tipping had an epiphany about energy after seeing footage of a chunk of ice the size of his home state (Connecticut) falling off Antarctica into the ocean, and decided to focus on science to find new forms of energy. A longtime investor, he formed Nanoholdings to work closely with universities and labs who are studying new forms of nano-scale energy in the four sectors of the energy economy: generation, transmission, storage and conservation.
Nanotech as a field is still very young (the National Science Foundation says it's "at a level of development similar to that of computer technology in the 1950s") and nano-energy in particular holds tremendous promise.
He says: "For the first time in human history, we actually have the ability to pick up an atom and place it the way we want. Some very powerful things can happen when you can do that."
What others say
“By working in the universities, right at the coal-face of nano-energy research, we can spot discoveries that otherwise might disappear withou
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Rethinking ‘normal’ in technology: Q&A with Justin Hall-Tipping
On stage at TED Global 2011 Justin Hall-Tipping set forth a bold agenda for funding innovation – one that makes room for radical changes and complete re-thinking of what’s possible. TED’s Ben Lillie tracked him down to follow up on the process of innovation, and his plans for the future.
You made this point that we often get stuck on this idea of what normal is. Do you think that really impedes our sense of progress? If we have too strong a sense of what normal is, or if we have a normal thing available — like the example of if we have serviceable solar cells — does the fact that we have those available keep us from reaching further and making them better?
Yes, I think it does. I think this sense of normal is something that we all grow up with and that we live. What you know is what shows up to you as normal. And I think it then dictates a large part of how you think.
If you look back in history with the advent of the automobile, at that time, everybody was moving around either by walking or on horses. And when the automobile came out, somebody said the theoretical maximum speed an automobile can go is 25 miles an hour, and any speed above 25 miles an hour, the human body