Author: Katherine Shield

Join us Friday, July 28, 3-5 pm PDT at the Closing Event for #TomorrowToday. WHAT:  An amazing two hours about the future of nuclear and clean energy. The program includes remarks by Columbia Economics and Sustainable Development Professor Jeffrey Sachs, and a keynote speech by Arun Majumdar, the Founding Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy at the Department of Energy. Most importantly, our students will be pitching their ideas to a judging panel that spans energy startups, Silicon Valley venture capital, and academia. WHERE: Banatao Auditorium, Sutardja Dai Hall, UC Berkeley Campus, Berkeley, CA Can't be in Berkeley? No Problem! Watch the livestream here. WHEN: Friday, July 28, 3-5 pm PDT WHY: Community. That's how big ideas become reality. Last year, the Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp Closing Event was standing room only; audience members…

In the second of our checking in series, we're highlighting Aries Loumis, a senior at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He came into Bootcamp with the outline of a company already created, but was losing his passion. This is what he has to say about his experience: "The Nuclear Innovation Bootcamp revitalized my faith in the nuclear industry. It helped me realize that even though there are difficult paths in licensing and social stigma that there is no reason to be discouraged... I got to make friends from all around the world, long lasting professional relationships with people in my field, and it gave me the confidence and proper guidance to believe that I can be the CEO of a nuclear startup." This passion, excitement, and commitment is the hallmark…

Ian Hamilton, who participated in the 2016 Bootcamp, is now participating in the Chain Reaction Innovations program at Argonne National Lab. The program is modeled after Cyclotron Road at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, a 2016 Bootcamp supporter. It aims to bring business-minded scientists into contact with lab experts in order to push their science and their companies closer to market. Ian's company bridges recycling and energy generation to create power from nuclear waste. He told us "Bootcamp significantly contributed [to] getting into the CRI program here at Argonne." This was a result of the networking he was able to do during Bootcamp, but also because "the knowledge [Ian] learned while at Bootcamp helped [him] answer some of the tougher questions from the judges" during the last few rounds of interviews. We know…