Nuclear Engineer wunderkind and environmentalist Leslie Dewan spent the first ten years of her career redesigning nuclear reactors to make them safer and reducing the amount of waste they produce. In this lively talk, Leslie turns her sights on a bigger obstacle to embracing nuclear energy as a critical element of the race towards a carbon-neutral future: us. Dr. Leslie Dewan is the CEO of RadiantNano, a nuclear startup developing next-generation radiation detectors with applications in national security, clean energy production, and medical diagnostics. Previously, she was the CEO of Transatomic Power, a company that designed safer nuclear reactors that leave behind less waste than conventional designs. Leslie received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT, and she also holds S.B. degrees from MIT in mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering.
Leslie has been awarded an MIT Presidential Fellowship, has served on MIT’s Board of Trustees, and is currently serving on the National Academy of Engineering’s study, “Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States.” Leslie has been named a TIME Magazine "30 People Under 30 Changing the World," an MIT Technology Review "Innovator Under 35," a National Geographic Explorer, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx