Carl Page and Hilda Palencia Address Students at the 2023 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit

Washington, D.C. — March 22, 2023 — Once again this year, Anthropocene Institute partnered with The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) on the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit’s Student Program, a unique opportunity for student energy leaders to engage with companies looking for new talent, as well as learn about new energy initiatives.

The Summit is an annual conference and technology showcase that brings together experts from different technical disciplines and professional communities to think about America’s energy challenges in new and innovative ways. Now in its thirteenth year, the Summit offers a unique, three-day program aimed at moving transformational energy technologies out of the lab and into the market.

Anthropocene Institute Technical Project Manager Hilda Palencia welcomed students and spoke about her background as an Aerospace Engineer working at NASA Ames Research Center on the LADEE lunar mission. “I joined Anthropocene a year and a half ago, and I’m really excited because the future of energy and the study of LENR is so important,” she said. Palencia then introduced Anthropocene President Carl Page.

Page discussed the various programs at Anthropocene Institute, including Got Nuclear, QuizBam, Anthrocean, and others, as well as the gaps in engineering and science that need to be filled to make the planet stable again, including Solid State Fusion Energy. “We know a lot about Solid State Physics,” he said. “Metals are not like plasmas. They line up, things shine through them, and when they crack, huge energies come out fairly easily. There are a whole bunch of ways that nuclear reactions can be promoted in these materials.”

He noted his excitement about ARPA-E’s $10 million FOA for LENR to advance the solid-state fusion energy field. “It’s been 100 years since the first observation of fusion,” Page said. “It’s high time we figure out how to harness this form of energy.”

He added that it isn’t sufficient to get to net zero. We need to do more, including direct air capture, direct ocean capture and development of new, safe forms of nuclear energy such as solid state fusion. He closed by telling students, “I look forward to all your efforts.”

This is just one way the Anthropocene Institute helps shape the future of energy technology and support breakthroughs in areas such as solid-state fusion. The Institute is also committed to helping graduate students in STEM find careers in an increasingly broad range of sectors from more traditional academic paths to government, startups, VC, and industry.