2010 Summer Workshop | Fannie and John Hertz Foundation

The 2010 Summer Workshop was held at the University of Virginia at Charlottesville. The Workshop started a barbeque dinner on Thursday, July 29, followed by a lively “MacGyver Challenges” ice-breaker. Guest speakers for the weekend included: David Thompson, Hertz Fellow 2007, Chairman and CEO of Orbital Science Corporation, talking on “Space Markets and Technologies in the Next Decade” and Arun Majumdar, Director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E) at the Department of Energy, talking on “Transformational Energy Technologies”.

Date:

Jul 30, 2010 - Aug 1, 2010

Location:

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA

In addition to the guest speakers, there was a presentation by the 2009 Louis Challenge Prize winning BioChar Project, problem sessions, and various breakout groups.

A special thank you to Ray Sidney for his vision and sponsorship of the Summer Workshop. Thank you also to the members of the Planning Committee—Shannon Yee, Michael Busch, John McKeen, Dean Lee, Katie Mitchell-Koch, Seth Stein, and Louis Lerman.

A Few Comments from the Fellows:

“I did not realize the diverse and interesting community of Hertz Fellows that exists, both currently in-school and already graduated; I was glad to see they were supportive of each other’s work and stayed in contact beyond graduation.”

– Justin Solomon, 2010, Stanford

“I had no idea that there were so many forward-looking people in the world that could come together to do real things! This meeting was unlike any other I had gone to before.”

– Maria Monks, 2010, attending Cambridge until fall 2011

“In the Lerman Challenge session it was exciting to brainstorm ways that the Hertz Community could reach out and impact other areas of society. A number of us are continuing to discuss ways to implement new ideas to improve science education.”

– Po-Ling Loh, 2009, University of California, Berkeley

“Both the Biochar talk and the discussion of The Party’s power structure in China were fascinating; I learned a great deal from both. I also gained some perspective on the legal side of invention from a suitemate.”

– Kevin Esvelt, 2004, Harvard

“I would like to see more alumni Fellows participate. I realize they are busy—so am I. Perhaps they are not aware of the opportunities to network—the in-school Fellows are future colleagues—and gain information such as provided in the presentations.”

– Doug Birdwell, 1975, MIT