PROTO VENTURES CHANNEL:
Fusion & Clean Energy
MISSION
To accelerate the creation of clean energy ventures from MIT.
BACKGROUND
MIT has a track record of big, bold, clean energy spinoffs. Innovation is guaranteed; now the challenge is, how can we make more of these potentially world-changing companies — and how can we accelerate ideas that can solve Earth’s most pressing challenges?
The Fusion & Clean Energy channel launched under the Office of Innovation in 2022 in partnership with MIT’s Plasma Science Fusion Center (PSFC).
This channel focuses on creating groundbreaking new opportunities in clean energy by leveraging MIT’s top-tier talent and core competencies, including superconducting magnets, artificial intelligence, robotics, plasma science, high-power radio frequency systems, cryogenics, advanced materials, electromagnetic sensors, and high energy physics.
WHO WE ARE
FACULTY DIRECTOR
Dennis Whyte
Director, Plasma Science and Fusion Center
Hitachi America Professor of Engineering
MANAGING DIRECTORS
Gene Keselman
Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management
Executive Director, Mission Innovation Experimental (MIx)
Michael Short
Class of ’42 Associate Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Associate Director, Plasma Science and Fusion Center
INTERNAL ADVISORS
Fiona Murray
Associate Dean of Innovation and Inclusion at the MIT School of Management and the William Porter (1967) Professor of Entrepreneurship
Michael Cima
David H. Koch (1962) Professor of Engineering
Faculty Director, Lemelson-MIT Program
Andrew Lo
Charles E. & Susan T. Harris Professor, MIT School of Management
Director, MIT Laboratory for Financial Engineering
EXTERNAL ADVISORS
Francesca Ferrazza
Naimish Patel
Jono Goldstein
Ally Yost
Badar Khan
Louis Carranza
Francis O’Sullivan
Nagarjuna Venna
Stephanie Connaughton
Dan Goodman
Luis Soenksen
CLEAN ENERGY
NEWS & PUBLICATIONS
What Do Experts Say About Proto Ventures’ Clean Energy Startup Ideas?
What Do Experts Say About Proto Ventures' Clean Energy Startup Ideas? Identifying the most promising clean energy venture ideas for MIT's venture studio By Jennifer Bonniwell | Proto Ventures News January 18, 2024 About 35 experts from all sides of the energy industry...
MIT Alumnus Cohen-Tanugi Named Venture Builder for Proto Ventures
David Cohen-Tanugi will lead efforts to create and launch clean energy startups out of MIT labs as the new venture builder for MIT’s venture studio, Proto Ventures.
Tapping into the million-year energy source below our feet
MIT spinout Quaise Energy is working to create geothermal wells made from the deepest holes in the world.