David Shaw is CEO and Co-Founder of carbon intelligence platform Cedara. We asked David to name his personal ‘digital hero’…
Who is your digital hero?
My digital hero is Annie Kitcher, a nuclear engineer and physicist who works at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
What has she done to win hero status in your eyes?
Annie has dedicated her career to developing groundbreaking technology with the goal of making nuclear fusion a reality. Nuclear fusion has been worked on by scientists since the mid 1900s, and developments over the past decades have been slow due to the complexity of this technology. Annie and her team’s design accomplished a pioneering achievement by attaining the world’s first fusion ignition, thus giving a path to commercialising the technology in the coming decades. This significant milestone is characterised by the fusion reactions emitting more energy than the energy expended to compress the fuel.
How has her heroism helped drive digital?
Annie’s commitment to advancing technology has contributed massively to shaping a future where digital can operate in abundance. Fusion, unlike fission which is how nuclear reactors operate, is renewable and does not produce radioactive waste. Additionally, fusion has the potential to generate considerably more energy per unit of fuel. Theoretically, it has the capacity to provide a nearly limitless supply of energy with minimal fuel requirements which makes it a breakthrough technology. This energy source can seamlessly power the digital sector and all other industries, propelling technological innovation and enabling the digital landscape to exponentially grow and thrive.
What are the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
A major challenge is making manufacturing and shipping more sustainable. This is an important one that needs to be addressed in order to solve the issues around the network infrastructure that powers digital, and the user devices where ads are displayed. The good news is that there are billions of dollars of investment globally going into making these industries net zero by 2050 and hopefully much earlier.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
I’m most proud of creating Cedara, and the incredible team of experts I have working with me. We’re working hard to make the industry more sustainable and encouraging others to do so as well.
