- Saul Griffith
Infobox Scientist
name = Saul Griffith
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caption = Dr. Saul Griffith
birth_date =February 14 ,1974
birth_place = flagicon|AUSSydney ,Australia
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field =Material Science
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known_for =Low-cost eyeglasses ,Energy conservation ,
Howtoons
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footnotes =Early Life
Saul Griffith was born into an academic family, and encouraged to question all around him, to experiment as a process of learning, and to communicate effectively. He was educated at a in the public school system at selective primary and secondary levels. He won a scholarship to study Material Science at
UNSW where he graduated with First Class Honours. His studies included an exchange years atUC Berkeley . He completed a Master of Engineering Degree atUSYD in fibre reinforced composites.port
Saul showed early talent in golf, achieving a handicap of 1 and winning several club championships and playing representative golf at school and State level. He also has a passion for kite-surfing and has taken his interest into the design of kites where he has a world reputation. He extended this interest into kiting on ice, snow and land. He is an avid bike rider and persists in tinkering with bike design.
tudy in the USA
He won a scholarship to
MIT Media Lab to study towards a PhD which he completed in 2004 after successful completion of his Master of Science degree.The subject of his PhD Thesis was Self replicating machines. They were one of the first instances of artificial replication being demonstrated in a real simulation. This leads to the possible explanation for how proteins can fold and higher-order structure prediction through the understanding of cell programming and how that affects structures and other cells.
Recent Achievements
Dr. Saul Griffith is an
inventor .He is also well known for his inexpensive technique for making prescription eyeglasses. This method uses two flexible surfaces and a pourable resin. The project is touted as becoming one of the leading solutions for developing nations for those persons in need of eyesight correction.
Awards
* 2007 – MacArthur Foundation "Genius grant".
* 2006 - WIRED “Rave” awards
* 2005 - Time Magazines “Top Inventions of 2005” (Smart electronic rope)
* 2005 - Technology Review Magazines’ TR35, 35 Top Innovators under 35 “Technologist in the aid of humanity” award
* 2003 -Lemelson-MIT Prize $30,000 Student Prize for invention
* 2003 - MIT IDEAS competition award, Boeing Company Domestic Prize
* 2002 - Australian Academy of Technical Sciences and Engineering Symposium Fellow
* 2001 - National Inventors Hall Of Fame, National Collegiate Inventors Award
* 2000 - MIT LEGO Fellow
* 1998-2004 - Research Assistantship, MIT Media Laboratory
* 1994/5 - UNSW / UC Berkeley International Student Exchange
* 1993-98 - UNSW Co-Op ScholarshipRecent Patents and Publications (some)
* Pat Pending: US Application 20030052425: Lens molding apparatus and related methods
* Pat Pending: US Application 20050231207: Electronic Elongation Sensing Rope* Self-replication from random parts. S. Griffith, D. Goldwater, J.M. Jacobson. NATURE. Vol. 437,29 September 2005, pp. 636
* Nanostructure fabrication by direct electron-beam writing of nanoparticles. S. Griffith, M.Mondol, D. Kong, J. Jacobson. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures, Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 2768–2772, November 2002
* High Resolution Micromachined Interferometric Accelerometer. E.B. Cooper, E.R. Post, S.Griffith, J. Levitan, S.R. Manalis, M.A. Schmidt, C.F. Quate. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 76, No.22, May 2000
* Growing Machines. MIT PhD Thesis, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, September 2004 US 6,348,295; US 6,664,027: Methods for manufacturing electronic and electromechanical elements and devices by thin-film deposition and imaging
* Towards Personal Fabricators: Tabletop tools for micrometre and sub-micrometre scale functional rapid prototyping. MIT Master's Thesis. MIT Libraries, 2001
* Thinkcycle at MIT. Sharing Distributed Design Knowledge for Open Collaborative Design. N.Sawhney, S. Griffith, Y. Maguire, T. Prestero, TechKnowLogia, Jan-Mar 2002, pp.49Current Projects
He is a co-founder of Squid Labs. He is now involved with Makani Power, HowToons, Instructibles, OptiOpia, Potenco and Monkeylectric.
Saul Griffith leads the movement to explain simply and illuminate the technical and practical energy needs of the planet. He also worked closely with the
OLPC team to develop a portable human-powered source sufficient to regenerate a battery in a low-cost laptop.* 2007 co-Founder Optiopia, Inc. - Developing low cost solutions for testing refractive error and supplying corrective eyeglasses.
* 2006 co-Founder Makani Power - Renewable energy start-up currently in “stealth” mode. Role: President & Chief Scientist
* 2006 co-Founder Potenco www.potenco.com - Human-powered solutions for electronic devices. Role: Advisor to CEO, Colin Bulthap
* 2005 co-Founder Instructables LLC www.instructables.com Open source step-by-step hardware construction collaboration. Role: Advisor to CEO, Eric Wilheim, Ph.D.
* 2004 co-Founder Squid Labs LLC - “Do Tank” research lab based in Emeryville, California. Role: Inventor
* 2004 co-Founder HowToons LLC - A mischievous, informal science education through comic books. Role: Author with Joost Bensen and Nick Dragotta* Technical Advisor: Make Magazine, Popular Mechanics Magazine
* Columnist / Contributor: Make Magazine, Craft Magazine
* Author of “HowToons” 120 page graphic novel to be published under Harper Collins, October 2 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuE7uek5aCI Video explanation.]
YouTube Links
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLHOTwvzf4 E-Tech Presentation]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81qHa3gJB3E TedTalk on his inventions]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1d5eYeKPsM Tour of Squid Labs]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIlXXT_G0Qw X-Prize for Energy @ MIT]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbwxF47x5ss Talking about Energy ]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFEKXdp1rIA Gadgetoff 2007]* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9mO6TuxzKM HowToons Party]
External links
* [http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/14/smbusiness/Saul_Griffith.fsb/?postversion=2007111509 CNN Money interview with Saul Griffith]
* [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/saul_griffith_on_everyday_inventions.html Saul Griffith atTED ]
* [http://www.howtoons.com/toons/ Howtoons toons] his collaboration to produce how-to cartoons for kids
* [http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2913825/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={3F4055F9-D3B9-4849-93A6-4729BA0CFE8F}¬oc=1 2007 MacArthur Fellows Write Up]
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