Leslie Dewan

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Leslie Dewan
Leslie Dewan in 2012
Born (1984-11-27) November 27, 1984 (age 39)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
EmployerTransatomic Power
Awards

Leslie Dewan (born November 27, 1984) is an American nuclear engineer. She was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Transatomic Power. Dewan was a member of the board of MIT[6] and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.[1]

Education[edit]

Dewan is a 2002 graduate of The Winsor School in Boston, Massachusetts.[7] She received S.B. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering in 2007.[8] She received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT in 2013.[9] While at MIT, Dewan was awarded a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship and an MIT Presidential Fellowship.[10][11]

Entrepreneurship[edit]

Dewan co-founded Transatomic Power in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2011 and was the chief executive officer until the corporation ceased operations.[12] Transatomic Power was founded to design and develop a molten salt reactor (Generation IV reactor) to generate clean and low-cost nuclear power.[13][14][15][16][17] In December 2012, Forbes magazine selected Dewan for their 30 Under 30 in Energy. In September 2013, MIT Technology Review recognized Dewan as one of “35 Innovators Under 35”. In December 2013, TIME magazine selected Dewan as one of "30 People Under 30 Changing the World". In 2016, errors were discovered in the company's analysis of its reactor design. A corrected reactor design had substantial technical advances over conventional light water reactors.[citation needed] However, it did not meet commercial requirements for rapid growth of the company. By September 25, 2018, Transatomic had ceased operations and placed its design data in the public domain.[18][19]

Dewan is currently CEO at RadiantNano in Framington, Massachusetts, in partnership with Dr. Matthew Alpert, designing and manufacturing sensors for detecting and imaging radiation.[20] RadiantNano is focused on clean energy, medical diagnostics, and national security.[21] In particular, RadiantNano is developing and deploying technology for preventing the proliferation of nuclear materials via smuggling in shipping containers.[22]

Media appearances[edit]

Dewan appeared in the documentary Uranium – Twisting the Dragon's Tail, and an episode of Nova entitled "The Nuclear Option" in 2017. In 2019, she hosted National Geographic Partners' web-based series Electric Earth.[23] She is expected to appear in the forthcoming documentary The Limitless Generation.[24] Dewan gave speeches at TEDx University of Rochester in 2019.[25] and Tedx Boca Raton in January, 2022[26]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b World Economic Forum "Meet the Young, Tech-Savvy, Civic-Minded Innovators Driving The Fourth Industrial Revolution" Retrieveyd 20 March 2016
  2. ^ National Geographic "2015 Emerging Explorers" Retrieved 20 March 2016
  3. ^ TIME magazine "These Are the 30 People Under 30 Changing the World" by Maya Rhodan. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  4. ^ MIT Technology Review "What if we could build a nuclear reactor that costs half as much, consumes nuclear waste, and will never melt down?" by Kevin Bullis. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  5. ^ Forbes "30 Under 30 - The Future Of Energy Is Nuclear" by Christopher Helman. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  6. ^ MIT News Office "MIT Corporation elects new members". Retrieved 20 March 2016
  7. ^ The Winsor School "Inventor Leslie Dewan ’02 Speaks with Students" Archived 2014-02-01 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 9 Feb 2014
  8. ^ TEDx New England "Dr. Richard Lester, Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie" Archived 2014-02-19 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 20 March 2016
  9. ^ TIME magazine "Amid Economic and Safety Concerns, Nuclear Advocates Pin Their Hopes on New Designs" by Bryan Walsh. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  10. ^ Krell Institute "DOE CSGF Fellow Leslie Dewan Earns Forbes '30 Under 30' Honor" Archived 2013-12-06 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 9 Feb 2014
  11. ^ EmTech MIT "Leslie Dewan" Retrieved 20 March 2016
  12. ^ Tech & Innovation Daily "The Technology That Will Help Prevent Another Fukushima Nuclear Disaster" by Elizabeth Carney. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  13. ^ The New Yorker "A New Way to Do Nuclear" by Gareth Cook. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  14. ^ Popular Science "The Energy Fix: How Waste Could Power The U.S. For Decades" by David Ferris. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  15. ^ Scientific American "The future of nuclear energy: Let a thousand flowers bloom" by Ashutosh Jogalekar. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  16. ^ Bloomberg Businessweek "Transatomic Power's Safer Reactor Eats Nuclear Waste" by Eric Roston. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  17. ^ Popular Science "Building a Safer, Cleaner Nuclear Reactor" by Paul Kvinta. Retrieved 20 March 2016
  18. ^ "Open Source - Transatomic". Transatomic. 25 September 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  19. ^ St. John, Jeff. "Transatomic to Shutter its Nuclear Reactor Plans, Open-Source its Technology". Greentech Media. Wood Mackenzie. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
  20. ^ "RadiantNano Website".
  21. ^ "RadiantNano Website".
  22. ^ "Ted X Boca Raton Youtube". YouTube.
  23. ^ "Electric Earth". National Geographic's Electric Earth. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
  24. ^ "Leslie Dewan". IMDb. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  25. ^ "Tedx University of Rochester". YouTube.
  26. ^ "Tedx Boca Raton". YouTube.

External links[edit]