Dennis Whyte: SPARC, fusion energy, leadership and collaboration | #5

Recorded on location in Massachusetts this is a discussion with Dr Luis Perez-Breva, the Faculty Director of MIT’s Innovation Teams; the joint enterprise between MIT Engineering and MIT Sloan to put the Institute’s deep tech advances to work to solve real-world problems. Through this, he has helped nearly 200 MIT technologies find a path to impact leading to the formation of some 40 new, enduring deep tech companies across all industries from mining to telecommunications. Dr. Perez-Breva holds a PhD in artificial intelligence from MIT and degrees in chemical engineering, physics, and business from leading universities in Spain (Institut Quimic de Sarrià), France (Ecole Normale Supérieure), and the United States (MIT). In 2011, the Spanish government recognised his career achievements by awarding him the Order of Civil Merit of the Kingdom of Spain. His work on Artificial Intelligence and Innovation has been featured by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, BBC, Wharton Business Radio, Entrepreneur, Zdnet, Quartz, Epsilon Theory and several other national and international media. Luis has worked with venture capital and numerous corporations and adapted his work to develop innovating factories. Currently, Luis is developing a technology repurposing fund to rescue, recycle, and, in essence, turn around technologies analogous to how private equity seeks to turn around companies. In this episode we explore common myths about innovating, how to minimise risk through recycling ideas and technologies, the most effective method to learn anything and much more. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:39 'Innovating' vs 'Innovation' 00:01:39 Breaking down what 'learning by doing' really means 00:09:23 Learning and navigating untraversed terrain 00:13:58 Finding a problem in the first place - the hunch 00:20:15 The art of applying new technologies to problems 00:23:04 The importance of leadership in cultivating a hub of innovation 00:30:31 How to manage (and use) risk 00:43:30 Could AI learn to innovate like us? 00:47:02 The real use of 'AI' systems 00:53:56 Advice for the next generation of problem solvers Resources: Dr Perez-Breva https://lpbreva.mit.edu/ https://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/profile/luis-perez-breva/ Innovation Teams https://iteams.mit.edu/ MIT https://web.mit.edu/ Flagship Pioneering https://www.flagshippioneering.com/ Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/Innovating-Manifesto-Starting-Prototyping-Productively/dp/0262035359 Another interview with Dr Perez-Breva to tune in to next! https://www.unstoppableteen.com/stem-learning-languages-and-innovating-interview-with-mit-director-dr-luis-perez-breva/ #physics #ai #stem #learning #innovating #GoogleX #Flagshipfounded#nikolatesla #henryford #microsoft #sunmicrosystems #apple#IOPLimitLess #thegalileointerviews

Recorded at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts this is a discussion with Professor Efthimios Kaxiras, Chair of the Department of Physics; John Hasbrouck Van Vleck Professor of Pure and Applied Physics and Professor of Applied Mathematics. He and his group study the structure and properties of different phases of matter and how they can be used in practical device applications. They employ theoretical models and computational tools that span multiple scales from the atomistic to the continuum. They also use machine learning methods to search for new or better materials, and for gaining a deeper understanding of complex solids and phenomena (find out more here - https://scholar.harvard.edu/efthimios_kaxiras/research ). A recent focus of Professor Kaxiras’ research has been the physics of twisted bilayers and multilayers of two-dimensional solids like graphene, a topic for which he and his team introduced the term ‘twistronics’. In this episode we delve into this exciting new realm of physics, discuss the ways in which it could change the world, and much more. The Galileo Interviews on: » Twitter | https://twitter.com/TheGalileoInt » Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/thegalileointerviews » LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/thegalileointerviews Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:32 The most interesting state of matter 00:06:34 Superconductors: quantum weirdness on a large scale 00:12:42 What is twistronics? 00:19:06 The magic of 2D 00:30:46 Applications of these materials 00:36:17 First contact with a powerful quantum computer 00:38:11 AI as a tool/ally 00:43:50 Exciting problems you can make your mission to solve 00:51:45 Advice for the next generation of curious minds Resources: Kaxiras Research Group https://scholar.harvard.edu/efthimios_kaxiras Harvard University Physics Department https://www.physics.harvard.eduhttps://www.youtube.com/harvardphysics Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences https://seas.harvard.edu Institute of Physics: https://www.iop.org https://www.youtube.com/user/InstituteofPhysics

In this episode we have for the first time, not 1 but 2 guests, in a discussion split into 3 parts. This is the final part of the series, in which we discuss Physics education. In the first, we discussed interdisciplinary approaches to science, and in the second, environmental physics. Below is some information on each of the guests.    Helen Rogers: Helen is an atmospheric scientist with twenty years of experience in teaching, research and programme coordination. She has worked on developing atmospheric/climate models at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, was Programme Manager for the NERC Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere Ozone Programme and a senior researcher for the European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit. She has particular interest and expertise in determining the environmental impact of the transport sector (primarily aviation and shipping), atmospheric modelling, and computational fluid dynamics. Helen was a contributor to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (2002); ‘Climate Change 2001: The scientific basis’ – the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); and the IPCC Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere (1999). Helen is the chair of the Environmental Physics Group at the Institute of Physics, with a D.Phil. in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Oxford and a degree in Physics from Imperial College, London.   Luthais McCash: Luthais is the Chief Scientific Officer at Sigma Solutions and chair of the mathematical and theoretical physics group at The Institute of Physics. Sigma Solutions was built entirely from scratch by Luthais as a business consulting firm that offers distinct ideas in state-of-the-art data analysis to a variety of businesses across multiple industries. The company has a reputation of finding creative approaches to complicated problems and has recently won the accolade of most innovative business 2022, awarded by Corporate Vision magazine.  Luthais himself has been recognised as one of the top 20 most dynamic CEOs in the UK of 2022 and he's still only in his twenties. Luthais was initially recognised as a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in May 2020 for his creative work on advanced modelling and optimisation in the energy industry with a focus on oil and gas. He developed and implemented technology that revolutionised the trading and efficient distribution of liquified natural gas by cutting costs by a factor of 10. He's been re-elected as a fellow of the RSS in June 2021 and he has also been an honorary fellow at the University of Leicester in 2019-2021.  On top of his business exploits he is now also in a research position at Durham University.    I hope you enjoy the discussion!   The Galileo Interviews on:  » Twitter | https://twitter.com/TheGalileoInt » Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/thegalileointerviews » LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/thegalileointerviews Chapters:  00:00:00 Introduction  00:01:06 How do we get more people excited about Physics?  00:08:49 How can a deeper understanding be facilitated in education  00:21:29 Maths as a language and what science is really about   32:59 Should exams be harder? Do they even test the right thing?  00:38:45 The importance of perseverance   00:44:20 Diversity in Physics    00:50:41 Coming full circle - intersections of disciplines    00:53:09 Wiki guide to reforming the education system!

In this episode we have for the first time, not 1 but 2 guests, in a discussion split into 3 parts. This is part two of the series, in which we discuss environmental physics. In the first, we discussed interdisciplinary approaches to science, and in the last part of this series we will discuss some of the big questions of physics education.  Below is some information on each of the guests. Helen Rogers An atmospheric scientist with 20 years experience in teaching, research & programme coordination. Has worked on developing atmospheric/climate models at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, was Programme Manager for the NERC Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere Ozone Programme and a senior researcher for the European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit. Has particular interest and expertise in determining the environmental impact of the transport sector (primarily aviation and shipping), atmospheric modelling and computational fluid dynamics. Helen was a contributor to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (2002); ‘Climate Change 2001: The scientific basis’ – the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); and the IPCC Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere (1999). Helen is the chair of the Environmental Physics Group at the Institute of Physics, with a D.Phil. in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Oxford and a degree in Physics from Imperial College, London. Luthais McCash Chief Scientific Officer at Sigma Solutions and chair of the mathematical and theoretical physics group at The Institute of Physics. Sigma Solutions was built entirely from scratch by Luthais as a business consulting firm that offers distinct ideas in state-of-the-art data analysis to a variety of businesses across multiple industries. The company has a reputation of finding creative approaches to complicated problems and has recently won the accolade of most innovative business 2022, awarded by Corporate Vision magazine. Luthais himself has been recognised as one of the top 20 most dynamic CEOs in the UK of 2022 and he's still only in his twenties. Luthais was initially recognised as a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in May 2020 for his creative work on advanced modelling and optimisation in the energy industry with a focus on oil and gas. He developed and implemented technology that revolutionised the trading and efficient distribution of liquified natural gas by cutting costs by a factor of 10. He's been re-elected as a fellow of the RSS in June 2021 and he has also been an honorary fellow at the University of Leicester in 2019-2021. On top of his business exploits he is now also in a research position at Durham University. I hope you enjoy the discussion!   00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:06 What is environmental physics? 00:04:25 'Differences of opinion' - variability in models 00:17:47 Current research in atmospheric physics 00:24:48 Limits on models 00:30:56 How to learn more about environmental physics

In this episode we have for the first time, not 1 but 2 guests, in a discussion split into 3 parts. This is part one of the series, in which we discuss interdisciplinary science. In the second, we will discuss environmental physics, and in the last part of this series we will discuss some of the big questions of physics education. Below is some information on each of the guests. Helen Rogers An atmospheric scientist with 20 years experience in teaching, research & programme coordination. She has worked on developing atmospheric/climate models at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, was Programme Manager for the NERC Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere Ozone Programme and a senior researcher for the European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit. She has particular interest and expertise in determining the environmental impact of the transport sector (primarily aviation and shipping), atmospheric modelling, and computational fluid dynamics. Helen was a contributor to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (2002); ‘Climate Change 2001: The scientific basis’ – the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); and the IPCC Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere (1999). Helen is the chair of the Environmental Physics Group at the Institute of Physics, with a D.Phil. in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Oxford and a degree in Physics from Imperial College, London. Luthais McCash Chief Scientific Officer at Sigma Solutions and chair of the mathematical and theoretical physics group at The Institute of Physics. Sigma Solutions was built entirely from scratch by Luthais as a business consulting firm that offers distinct ideas in state-of-the-art data analysis to a variety of businesses across multiple industries. The company has a reputation of finding creative approaches to complicated problems and has recently won the accolade of most innovative business 2022, awarded by Corporate Vision magazine. Luthais himself has been recognised as one of the top 20 most dynamic CEOs in the UK of 2022 and he's still only in his twenties. Luthais was initially recognised as a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in May 2020 for his creative work on advanced modelling and optimisation in the energy industry with a focus on oil and gas. He developed and implemented technology that revolutionised the trading and efficient distribution of liquified natural gas by cutting costs by a factor of 10. He's been re-elected as a fellow of the RSS in June 2021 and he has also been an honorary fellow at the University of Leicester in 2019-2021. On top of his business exploits he is now also in a research position at Durham University. I hope you enjoy the discussion! The Galileo Interviews on: » Twitter | https://twitter.com/TheGalileoInt  » Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/thegalileointerviews » LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/thegalileointerviews Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:06 Notable exciting intersections between fields 00:07:35 Knowledge and skills to embark on an interdisciplinary career 00:14:23 Unexpected connections 00:24:13 Overcoming the ‘language barrier’

This 6th episode is with Luthais McCash, Chief Scientific Officer at Sigma Solutions and chair of the mathematical and theoretical physics group at The Institute of Physics. Sigma Solutions was built entirely from scratch by Luthais as a business consulting firm that offers distinct ideas in state-of-the-art data analysis to a variety of businesses across multiple industries. The company has a reputation of finding creative approaches to complicated problems and has recently won the accolade of most innovative business 2022, awarded by Corporate Vision magazine. Luthais himself has been recognised as one of the top 20 most dynamic CEOs in the UK of 2022 and he's still only in his twenties. Luthais was initially recognised as a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in May 2020 for his creative work on advanced modelling and optimisation in the energy industry with a focus on oil and gas. He developed and implemented technology that revolutionised the trading and efficient distribution of liquified natural gas by cutting costs by a factor of 10. He's been re-elected as a fellow of the RSS in June 2021 and he has also been an honorary fellow at the University of Leicester in 2019-2021. On top of his business exploits he is now also in a research position at Durham University. Listen to hear more and enjoy! The Galileo Interviews on: » Twitter | https://twitter.com/TheGalileoInt » Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/thegalileointerviews » LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/thegalileointerviews Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:51 Bringing business and science together 00:11:12 Choosing the business to work with and the problems to solve 00:25:58 How do you approach solving a problem? 00:29:15 What is the research you are currently working on? 00:33:40 The timespan from idea to publishing a paper 00:36:37 A mathematician's approach to problem solving 00:38:52  The importance of science in society 00:48:35  Supporting public engagement with science at The Institute of Physics 00:51:26  Thoughts on increasing diversity in science 00:56:18  Reasons to study mathematics and physics Resources: Sigma Solutions: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sigma-solutionsglobal https://www.sigmasolutions.uk Institute of Physics: https://www.iop.org https://www.youtube.com/user/InstituteofPhysics BankAbility: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digital-ability-ltd/ https://www.bankability.app/#about Corporate Vision Magazine: https://www.corporatevision-news.com https://www.linkedin.com/company/corporate-vision-magazine/ Royal Statistical Society: https://rss.org.uk https://www.youtube.com/user/RoyalStatSoc University of Leicester: https://le.ac.uk https://www.youtube.com/user/UniversityLeicester Durham University: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/physics/ Richard Feynman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman Pareto Principle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle Bose-Einstein condensate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose–Einstein_condensate #IOPLimitLess #physics #mathematics #quantumphysics #iamaphysicist #thegalileointerviews #sciencecommunication #quantum #quantumcomputing #quantumtechnology #UniversityOfLeicester #DUinspire #CitizensOfChange #sigmasolutions #optimisationproblems #problemssolving #leadership

Recorded at the Institute of Physics in London, this is a  discussion with Professor Dennis Whyte, the Hitachi America Professor of Engineering at MIT, a professor in the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and the Director of the MIT Plasma Science & Fusion Center. He’s the winner of numerous accolades, including in 2018 the Fusion Power Associates Leadership Award which is given annually to individuals who have shown outstanding leadership qualities in accelerating the development of fusion. This leadership extends to heading up the fusion project SPARC, a compact, high-field, fusion energy device, in collaboration with MIT-born private fusion startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems. The day before this interview I was lucky enough to listen to him speak at FUSION22, which took place at the Science Museum in London. It was incredibly exciting to learn more about the extraordinary strides that are being made towards a reality of commercial fusion energy. It’s a really dynamic field and I hope you enjoy the conversation. The Galileo Interviews on: » YouTube | https://youtu.be/ozsRXzQ-S7w?sub_confirmation=1 » Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/thegalileoi... » LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/theg... Chapters: 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:31 Reasons to be a future employee 00:04:10 'The research bug' and finding your motivation 00:07:18 What is nuclear fusion and how are we trying to harness it for energy? 00:10:47 The SPARC project and extraordinary successes 00:17:20 Remaining challenges for young people to get excited about 00:22:10 Collaboration in fusion 00:27:13 Politics and development hurdles 00:29:35 Leadership 00:31:58 Advice for an 18 year old self

A discussion with Dr. Fiona Beck, who leads a research group at The Australian National University focused on integrating nanophotonics and optoelectronic device design for applications in solar fuels and the next generation of photodetection technologies. She is also Convenor of the Hydrogen Fuels Project in the Energy Change Institute's Zero-carbon energy for the Asia-Pacific ANU Grand Challenge. Dr Beck currently holds a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the ARC, as well as the Future Engineering Research Leader (FERL) Fellowship from the ANU.     00:00:00 Introduction  00:01:10 What inspired Dr Fiona Beck’s career?  00:02:40 Other inspiration for Dr Beck  00:03:47 How Dr Fiona Beck is looking at converting light to other forms of energy  00:10:13 Differences in learning for a project verses in an academic setting  00:12:06 Coming back to solar fuels including: - Plasmodically driven photocatalysis                  - Zero carbon energy for the Asia Pacific  00:17:32 Importance of considering policy in ensuring we can can effectively transition to a sustainable future   00:22:13 How much time does Dr Beck spend in the lab versus looking at the theory?  00:24:11 What have been the biggest challenges in Dr Beck’s career so far?                  - building confidence                  - Gender inequalities and ensuring a more diverse future for physics  00:29:52 Reflection on the benefits (and drawbacks) of travel for a career in Physics  00:32:53 Advice Dr Beck would give her younger self  00:35:02 Ideas for the current school curriculum  00:37:07 How Dr Beck approaches problem solving   00:40:03 Knowing which problem to solve  00:42:37 Thoughts on other sources of renewable energy  00:45:25 Areas of interest for the future - Carbon dioxide drawdown  00:48:23 The idea in the history of science Dr Beck sees as the most revolutionary  00:51:32 Final advice for up and coming Physicists  00:53:38 Thank yous

A conversation with Stephen Wolfram.  Books:  A Project to Find the Fundamental Theory of Physics: https://www.wolfram-media.com/products/a-project-to-find-the-fundamental-theory-of-physics.html A New Kind of Science: https://www.wolframscience.com/nks/  The Physics Project: https://www.wolframphysics.org  00:00:00 Introduction   00:01:11 Looking at Stephen Wolfram’s Educational journey  00:05:39 Things learnt in school are actually useful!  00:06:34 Particle Physics and Stephen’s early years  00:11:39 Stephen Wolfram’s first paper  00:16:19 Using computers for algebraic calculations  00:22:00 Launching his own company  00:23:00 Starting to study cellular automata  00:26:30 The importance of using technology to help advance physics  00:28:14 The advice Stephen would give to his teenage self  00:30:00 The importance of choosing the right problems  00:35:44 Stephen’s views on ‘modern’ physics  00:38:21 Ruliology and A New Kind of Science  00:40:56 Working on a generalisation of calculus?  00:45:16 Applying learnings from the Physics Project to other fields such as Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology and Economics  00:50:00 Physics as a remarkable export field  00:54:24 History of tools to describe the universe  00:55:17 Computation as a very general paradigm & Wolfram Language  01:00:12 Wolfram Summer Camp 01:02:40 The possibility of a special relativity of economics  01:06:21 Live streaming and open source nature of the Physics Project   01:09:18 The concept of the Ruliad   01:15:28 Taking measurements and moving through Ruliad Space?  01:22:00 Quantum mechanics and relatively - a beautiful symmetry   01:34:00 Thank you and goodbye

A conversation with Rushen Patel, Head of Enterprise Data Science at M & S, sharing his thoughts and experience from studying through to the commercial world and the commercial application of a physics degree and the career that he is successfully building on the back of it.  This discussion covers the journey that has, to date, included Red Bull Racing & Red Bull Technology, Vivacity Labs, ProGrad, Marks and Spencer, and more.  Loads of great insight and advice. Contents: 01:00 - As an engineer what's the most interesting problem you've ever worked on?  02:46 - What interested you about physics and engineering to begin with when you were young and what motivated you to then go and study it at Cambridge?  04:20 - What do you think the greatest thing you learned was whilst you were at Cambridge?  06:42 -  So what was the transition like going from academic study and research into industry? What did you have to learn for that?  08:33 - Was it quite difficult to learn to explain some obviously quite high level concepts to people from a non-technical background?   10:21  - How do you go about solving problems in industry? Do you approach problems in a certain way?   14:50  - Could you explain what reinforcement learning is, how it works and how you applied it to this project (traffic flow)?  21:50  - Can you explain how these sorts of models work (model predictive control framework to guide policy decisions on social distancing) and how beneficial it would be to use systems like this to guide decision making?  26:20  - So what's been your favourite startup to work on and why?  29:12  - So if you could choose to work on anything else in the future what would it be?  32:05  - Which idea, in the history of science, do you believe, was the most revolutionary?  34:10 - Do you think that (quantum computing) could have a really significant impact on AI and machine learning?  36:40  - If you could give one piece of advice to someone around my age, 17, 18, looking to go into physics or engineering what would it be? Links https://www.linkedin.com/in/rushenpatel/ To view all episodes please also visit YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thegalileointerviews