Saul Griffith (born 1974) is an
Australian-American inventor and renewable electricity advocate.
He is the founder or co-founder of multiple companies, including
Otherlab (where he is currently CEO),
Makani Power
Makani Technologies LLC was an Alameda, California-based company that developed airborne wind turbines. Founded in 2006, Makani was acquired by Google in May 2013. In February 2020, Makani was shut down by Alphabet, Google's parent company.
Hi ...
, and
Instructables
Instructables is a website specializing in user-created and uploaded do-it-yourself projects, currently owned by Autodesk. It was created by Eric Wilhelm and Saul Griffith and launched in August 2005. Instructables is dedicated to step-by-step ...
.
Education
In 2000, Griffith graduated from the
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...
with a Master of Engineering degree. He won a scholarship to
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...
to study towards a
PhD that he completed in 2004. The subject of his PhD thesis was "self-replicating machines". They were one of the first instances of artificial replication being demonstrated using real
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
.
Projects
Griffith is the co-founder and
CEO of OtherLab, a research and development company working on computational manufacturing and design tools and applying those tools to projects such as inflatable pneumatic robots and prostheses, novel approaches to heliostat design, and applications of computational origami to the design of pressure vessels (e.g. for compressed
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
) in arbitrary shapes. Otherlab's R&D is guided by a vast map of energy flows in the
US economy
The United States is a highly developed mixed-market economy and has the world's largest nominal GDP and net wealth. It has the second-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP) behind China. It has the world's seventh-highest per capita G ...
, which they use to identify key leverage points in building a more
sustainable energy economy.
Griffith used this energy flow mapping for Rewiring America, a
nonprofit organization
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
working on electrification. He argues that the United States can create 30 million jobs, save consumers money, boost energy resiliency, and accelerate achievement of a
net zero
Carbon neutrality is a state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the " ...
economy.
Previously, he was a co-founder of
Squid Labs, and its spinout companies and projects
Makani Power
Makani Technologies LLC was an Alameda, California-based company that developed airborne wind turbines. Founded in 2006, Makani was acquired by Google in May 2013. In February 2020, Makani was shut down by Alphabet, Google's parent company.
Hi ...
,
Instructables
Instructables is a website specializing in user-created and uploaded do-it-yourself projects, currently owned by Autodesk. It was created by Eric Wilhelm and Saul Griffith and launched in August 2005. Instructables is dedicated to step-by-step ...
,
Wattzon, HowToons, OptiOpia, Potenco, Sunfolding, Other Machine Company and Monkeylectric.
Personal life
Griffith used to live in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
. As of 2022, he has relocated to Australia, living in
Wollongong
Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wa ...
.
He is married to
Tim O'Reilly
Tim O'Reilly (born 6 June 1954) is the founder of O'Reilly Media (formerly O'Reilly & Associates). He popularised the terms open source and Web 2.0.
Education and early life
Born in County Cork, Ireland, Tim O'Reilly moved to San Francisco, C ...
's daughter Arwen. He has two children.
Griffith's mother is a wildlife artist, early
Greenpeace activist and printmaker, while his father is a retired professor.
Publications
* ''Electrify: An Optimist's Playbook for Our Clean Energy Future'' (2021). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT University Press. ISBN 9780262046237 (Hardcover edition).
[
ISBN for paperback edition.
]
References
External links
*
The big switch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffith, Saul
1974 births
Living people
Australian emigrants to the United States
MacArthur Fellows
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni
Businesspeople from San Francisco
People from Sydney
Sustainability advocates
University of New South Wales alumni
University of Sydney alumni
Wind power
21st-century American inventors