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The Roots of Progress Fellowship

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Building Fellows

The Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship is an opportunity for  writers to sharpen their ideas by discussing them with each other, learn new writing skills and processes, grow by receiving feedback from professional editors and peers alike, and increase their impact by growing their audiences.

Selected via a multi-step open application process from several hundred applicants each year, here are our up-and-coming intellectual entrepreneurs for progress.

Creating the talent to power a flourishing progress movement

When we launched the first iteration of our Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship in 2023, a crucial open question was “is there enough high-caliber progress talent out there worth accelerating?” The answer, with our first cohort, was a resounding “yes!” Our second and third cohorts have shown that that that first year was no fluke.  This year we again received several hundred applications of such high quality that it was challenging to select down to our target of 25 participants, which is how we ended up with a larger cohort of 31 fellows!

We’re thrilled to have such a great community come together. The tide of history isn’t always carried by the side with the best ideas. It is carried by the side with the intellectuals who are best at presenting and arguing for its ideas. 


Meet our 2025 fellows

Introducing our 2025 Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship Cohort.

This year’s fellows are a group 31 of impressive progress thinkers and writers, selected from a pool of over 400 applicants. They are scientists, urbanists, economists, lawyers, farmers, professors, policy-makers, builders, entrepreneurs and storytellers from the U.S., Canada, Ireland, the U.K., and Germany. They speak English, French, Mandarin, Farsi, Hindi, Korean, German, and Spanish. And they’ll be writing about medical history, apprenticeship programs, precision agriculture, American reindustrialization, competition with China, trains and transportation, Irish progress, aging research, biotechnology, the moral imperative of progress and so much more.

2025

Our 2025 fellows

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Steven Adler

San Francisco

Promoting sensible AI development

I’m an AI safety researcher who worked at OpenAI for four years, leading teams like our dangerous capability evaluations. These days I research and write about “how to make AI go better”, by which I mean avoiding potential AI catastrophes and hopefully achieving an amazing future on the other side.

My academic background is in computer science (MS from Georgia Tech) and economics (AB from Brown). I also have a fondness for policy and philosophy from my time as a competitive debater.

Personal bio

Music and movies and more

I live in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond neighborhood with my fiancée and a wide range of musical equipment, which I hope to become competent at one of these days. Lately you might find me at the movies putting my AMC A-List membership to good use, or perhaps on a run through Golden Gate Park. I’m also a big fan of nature photography and various puzzle-genre games.

Business bio

Andrew Burleson

Denver

Optimistic Urbanist

I’ve always found cities fascinating. I studied architecture and real estate, then worked in urban planning, before shifting my attention to advocacy and my day job to tech. I’m a cofounder at Strong Towns, a national non-profit focused on finance, transportation, and housing, and I’ve served as Board Chair since 2014.

Working in tech is inspiring: you experience the creativity and innovation humans are capable of when they have the freedom to build. Our cities used to work like that too. In some ways we’re living in the ruins of an earlier civilization, one that knew how to grow cities by millions of people in a decade, building the engines of our economy. I’d like to bring that dynamism back.

I write about how and why our culture of innovative, upwardly mobile, human-oriented cities went away, and how we might unlock a better future by bringing it back.

Personal bio

Unathletic Alpine Enjoyer

I love living in a big city by the mountains. In the warmer months I really enjoy hiking with my family, but my very favorite activity is skiing. I’m having a great time teaching my kids. I’m not an athlete, but I find time spent in the mountains so uplifting, I just love being out there.

City life is great too. I live in a very walkable neighborhood, and love being a regular on the Main Street by our house, and seeing friends and neighbors at our park.

At home I enjoy DIY projects, especially building things. We keep backyard chickens, and I loved building the coop and run. Having excess colorful eggs to give away has also been a bonus!

Business bio

Byron Cohen

Washington D.C.

Biotechnology Innovation for Public Health

Hello! I’m a pandemic preparedness policy practitioner, epidemiologist, and health system researcher. I became interested in the intersection of biotechnology innovation, pandemic preparedness, and public health during my PhD studies, which overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2024 I served as an advisor at the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy, where I advised on research & development policy. I currently advise a US national security organization on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness strategy. In this program, I plan to explore the R&D pathways to new biotechnologies that can transform pandemic preparedness and public health.

Personal bio

Social social scientist

Outside of work, I enjoy Olympic-style weightlifting, playing soccer, ice hockey, tennis, and basketball, and jamming with friends on the guitar and harmonica.

Business bio

Tim Durham

Roanoke

From Subsistence to Surplus

Tim is a lifelong agriculturist. His family operates Deer Run Farm – a 30 acre “truck” farm on Long Island, New York. As one of a handful of farms in the area, it faces unique challenges, especially those associated with urban-edge agriculture. As a result, Tim has a keen interest in the interplay between science, sustainability, and policymaking. After graduating from Cornell University in 2001 with a B.S. in Plant Science, he worked in various levels of state and federal government while continuing to work seasonally at the farm. In 2004, he was awarded a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship for study at Lincoln University, New Zealand. DHS awarded Tim a graduate fellowship in 2005. In summer of 2006, he was a visiting fellow at Los Alamos National Lab, working with crop biosecurity. In 2008, Tim graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in Plant Medicine, the equivalent of a “plant M.D.” He is currently an Associate Professor of Crop Science at Ferrum College.

Personal bio

Child of the 80’s

I fancy myself an encyclopedia of 80’s culture – toys, music, and video games. I own an exhaustive collection of retro consoles – curated to museum quality standards. I also restore old stand-up arcade machines. Hydroponics and bucket ag are a zen-like experience – horticultural therapy is a legitimate stress reliever (and paradoxically, an inducer).

Business bio

Sam Enright

Dublin

Progress studies for Ireland

As an undergraduate, I studied economics and philosophy, which I just graduated from. While I was a student, I spent a lot of my time blogging about assorted topics in economics, history, and philosophy on The Fitzwilliam and on my personal blog (https://samenright.substack.com/). Now, I lead innovation policy at Progress Ireland, a think tank in Dublin.

Personal bio

Attempting recursive self-improver?

Outside of my main job, I find great meaning in teaching at spring and summer camps for mathematically gifted teenagers, most recently on https://www.aspr.camp/. At least once a month, I run some kind of reading group: so far we’ve covered classic science papers, economics blogs, and some Shakespeare. To relax, I listen to a lot of jazz (Keith Jarrett, Miles Davis, Lee Morgan…), and watch and review movies on my blog.

Business bio

Étienne Fortier-Dubois

Montreal

Technology as macromutations

After studying biology and computer science, I worked as a software engineer and eventually became a specialist in AI evaluations at Elicit, a startup building an AI research assistant. In parallel, I’ve been building my writing career by blogging at Hopeful Monsters for 210 consecutive weeks, and publishing pieces in various outlets, including Works in Progress and Asterisk Magazine.

I’m especially interested in the historical, cultural, and evolutionary aspects of technological progress. I am known for having way too much interest in the history of the pineapple, and for creating an interactive historical tech tree.

Personal bio

Psychological richness enjoyer

I sing in an amateur choir (we do contemporary classical pieces that no one has ever heard of), cook a lot (love trying new recipes), travel a bunch (some favorite places: Mexico City, Jerusalem, Santorini), have written a couple of unpublished novels and a few published short stories (I have an ongoing literary project about phantom islands), and enjoy long walks with friends where we talk about deep philosophical topics. I like new experiences, old maps, and parenthetical statements.

Business bio

Lesley Gao

San Francisco

Advocate for Industrial Renewal

I have spent my career building and scaling tech startups across the United States and China, with deep, hands-on experience in China’s manufacturing and supply chain systems. That background shaped my interest in the deeper forces behind national progress such as industrial capacity, capital formation, and state market coordination. My goal is to move beyond the often single-pointed narratives by offering a more comprehensive lens on how America might reindustrialize. By examining the realities of China’s industrial progress, I hope to surface practical ideas for aligning technology, policy, and investment in the United States.

Personal bio

Recovering tech operator turned chef

Outside of work, I’m a professionally trained chef who finds joy in cooking elaborate meals for friends. Nothing brings people together like a good table. I once ran a marathon in North Korea, which still surprises people, and I’m an avid film lover who writes movie critiques for fun. Whether it’s in the kitchen or in front of a screen, I’m always chasing stories that feed the soul.

Business bio
Essays

Michael Hill

London

Development economics for the UK

Until very recently I was the Asia Pacific policy advisor at the UK government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. I will soon be starting a role as policy researcher at the pro progress, growth and abundance campaign organisation Britain Remade. I previously lived in East Asia for many years and hope by spreading East Asian best practice on infrastructure and housing to the UK I can help drag us out of our 18 year long economic stagnation.

Personal bio

Perpetual hunt for anecdotes

I am part time soldier (Artillery) and semi professional football (soccer) referee. I first studied economics from North Korean text books. I have been detained three times by Chinese police, border or security forces but was released without charge each time.

Business bio

Heidi Huang

Boston, MA

Advocate for aging biology research

I first got hooked on neuroscience research as an undergrad at UC Berkeley. Coaching folks with end stage renal disease on finding living donors in college made me realize medicine would benefit from more proactive approaches, which sparked my interest in aging research.

Now at Feng Zhang’s lab at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, I’m exploring how sleep protects us from systemic stress, aiming to understand resilience pathways that could extend healthspan. Aging research can help us live healthier, longer lives and give humanity the chance to pursue ambitious missions like exploring space. I hope to write about aging and biology research to highlight their potential to transform health and inspire more people to work on these problems.

Personal bio

Recovering cardio skeptic

I’ve bounced around from Indiana to Taipei, then San Francisco, and somehow landed myself in Boston. Clearly I can’t make up my mind about the weather. These days, you’ll usually find me buried in blog posts, nonfiction books, textbooks, or research papers. When my eyes need a break, I love exploring the city on foot—usually getting lost, but that’s half the fun! Swimming’s great, too. Running and I had a brief fling; I did a half marathon to see what the hype is all about before deciding it’s not for me. Lifting makes me happy, and hiking even happier: my favorite was Snow Mountain in Taiwan at 3,886 meters above sea level. I used to make actual music, but now I just annoy my neighbors with amateur mixes on my DJ controller.

Business bio

Hiya Jain

Ahmedabad, India

Writing scientific histories

I recently graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University where I double majored in History and Neuroscience. There I wrote a thesis on aesthetics in mathematics and worked as a research assistant on a few book projects focused on global political and scientific histories.

Now, I write about science, how institutions must be built for it, and stories of the good ones. I’m also broadly interested in drug discovery, public health, talent-mobility, research infrastructure, and the lives of excellent individuals. I draw heavily from historical precedents and I’m excited to make good ideas from the past relevant today.

Personal bio

Content Consumer

I have recently rediscovered a love for reading fiction and am slowly making my way through the French and Russian classics. I also watch a lot of indie movies, take many long walks, and enjoy sampling (and critiquing) the best sweet-treats wherever I happen to live.

Business bio

Adam Kroetsch

San Francisco

Faster cures through better evidence

I’ve devoted my career to advancing biomedical innovation and public health, having worked at FDA and in health policy research and think tanks. I’ve had firsthand experience shaping and implementing health policy and improving health data, and I’m excited to share what I’ve learned and learn from others in the field.

I am interested in biomedical innovation and how to advance it, but, more specifically, I’m interested in clinical evidence: how we generate it, learn from it, and apply it to improve health. There has been tremendous progress in biomedical science, but I believe that progress in medicine will depend on our ability to improve the systems that we use to generate clinical evidence.

Personal bio

Pancake-flipping dad

When I’m not busy reading and writing, I enjoy hiking with my wife and son, watching and attending baseball games, and experimenting in the kitchen (I’m still perfecting my pancake recipe). I also love listening to and playing music; my toddler son, wife and I have a living room full of musical instruments and enjoy playing them together. My family recently moved to the San Francisco Bay Area after spending most of my career in Washington DC, and while I miss the snow, I don’t miss DC summers.

Business bio

Alex Kustov

Charlotte, NC

Making migration popular through better policies

I’m a political science professor researching public opinion and democratic governance with a focus on immigration and other demographic issues. My work appears in top academic journals, has earned major awards, and is frequently featured by leading outlets and think tanks. My new book, “In Our Interest: How Democracies Can Make Immigration Popular,” explores under what conditions most people would accept freer immigration.

Building on the book, I’m now launching a research initiative aimed at identifying politically feasible migration solutions by pairing fresh survey data with cross-national insights. As part of this project, I’ll write about new policy ideas—such as labor mobility partnerships and private refugee sponsorship—that can expand legal immigration pathways while minimizing public backlash.

Personal bio

There’s always an adventure in progress

Immigration politics aside, I enjoy hiking, photography, gastronomic travel, weighted pull-ups, hojicha, and all things Japan—especially when wedging myself into places I’m clearly not supposed to be.

Business bio

Allison Lehman

Minneapolis

Farming and Meta-Farming

Raised on a generational fruit farm, Allison’s technical passion turned toward agriculture as soon as she could walk. She studied ag engineering and soil science, and worked alongside farmers on nutrient management.

Today she works connecting researchers and specialty crop growers, helping researchers align their projects with growers’ greatest needs, while helping growers implement research outcomes on-farm.

Personal bio

skiing, shooting, and folk dance

Technical passion is the common thread–whether she’s baking or practicing biathlon alone, or bringing community together to enjoy and preserve folk dancing traditions.

Business bio

Anton Leicht

Berlin

Preventing AI Policy Disasters

I write about the tricky politics that arise when fast progress meets slow institutions. In that setting, I think we have two choices: We get ahead of the wave and get it right, or we get swept away by it and roll the dice on how it goes. I hope my writing makes some contribution to ‘getting it right’.

I used to work in German politics, lobbying and AI policy. Before that, I studied philosophy. I started writing about my frustrations with the state of technology policy & politics when I felt like I had already voiced them to everyone I knew, and I haven’t stopped since.

Personal bio

Meandering Optimiser

I enjoy going all-in on whatever turns out to be my hobby of the day. Lately, that has included shaky attempts at finally nailing Chopin’s first Ballade, optimising my butter imports for croissant-making, and not forgetting all chess opening theory five moves in (pictured: one of my many unsuccessful attempts).

Instead of going to high school very much, I spent a lot of time as an ‘elobooster’ for hire in online strategy games. That was a simpler life.

Business bio

Laura Mazer

Austin, TX

Storyteller of medical history

Dr. Laura Mazer is a board-certified surgeon who transitioned to a career as a full-time educator. She now writes at the intersection of history and medical science, exploring how new knowledge emerges and how old knowledge is improved.

Personal bio

Bad at titles

When I’m not working, I enjoy travel, hiking, and local theater. I’ve moved enough to make packing and Ikea furniture creation a marketable skill.

 

Business bio

Pouya Nikmand

Austin, TX

Inspiring a love for civilization

Pouya is a writer and freedom advocate who escaped Iran at age 18, beginning a seven-year journey to freedom that included four years of forced slavery. Inspired by a childhood viewing of the movie Ratatouille, he fled his homeland alone and penniless after being disowned by his ultra-religious family. His harrowing path took him through East Asia and Central Europe, where he faced starvation, homelessness, and abuse, before making it to the US.

Despite having faced discrimination across multiple developed countries, Pouya maintained his childhood admiration for the progress they’ve already made. Through his writing, he shares personal insights into life under dictatorship versus freedom, the life-saving value of progress, and how to deal with injustice.

Personal bio

Abolitionist literature + animated rats

When I’m not writing or researching, you’ll find me reading 19th-century romantic writers and abolitionist orators. Maria Montessori and Frederick Douglass are my spiritual parents. I have a deep, almost reverent love for Seoul, the city where I first witnessed freedom with my own eyes. I’m fascinated by the stories of inventors and visionaries who built amazing products that changed how we live. Did I mention that Ratatouille is my favorite movie? I wouldn’t have been here without it.

Business bio

Seán O’Neill McPartlin

Dublin

Pro-growth, anti-decline

I am a co-founder and Director of Housing Policy at Progress Ireland. Before that, I volunteered with OneDaySooner, publishing articles in the British Medical Journal and Telegraph. My academic background is in philosophy and economic policy.

Personal bio

Recovering philosophy grad

When I am not advocating for YIMBY policies, I am an avid birdwatcher, watching movies, and reading broadly.

Business bio

Ariel Patton

San Francisco, CA

Agriculture at just the right depth

Ariel Patton writes and illustrates Topsoil, a monthly newsletter that delivers frameworks to help readers make sense of agriculture. Ariel is currently a Director of Product at InnerPlant, a company using bioengineering to allow plants to alert farmers of stressors in their fields.

Ariel’s career has focused on driving digital transformation of agriculture to help farmers manage their operations more profitably and sustainably. She has been working professionally in agriculture since 2017, and unofficially since 2001, when she sold her first pig at the county fair and was hooked on this endlessly fascinating industry.

Personal bio

Compost rules everything around me

I spend most of my free time running around the garden with my toddler and terrier. I volunteer as a Master Food Preserver to help educate others to jam, pickle and ferment the incredible California bounty.

Business bio

Rhishi Pethe

San Francisco

Techno-optimism for food and agriculture

I have spent my career using technology to solve problems across food and agriculture systems around the world. From this experience, I firmly believe that technologies like AI, genetics, automation and others will play a major role in shaping a future where food and agriculture are more productive, sustainable, nutritious, and prosperous, for everyone involved.

My goal is to explore, and ideally help shape the direction of progress by closing the gap between cutting-edge technologies and real-world agricultural practices. By doing so, I aim to support the adoption of transformative tools that make our food and agriculture systems more productive, resilient, and successful.

Personal bio

Power nap advocate

My secret super-power is taking power naps and my weakness is ice-cream! I love spending time with my two dogs and joking with my daughters. I am a big fan of the game of cricket, love listening to jazz, hiking, reading history, and watching stand-up comedy. Any kind of humor is fine with me, as long as it is funny!

Business bio

Venkatesh Ranjan

Phoenix, AZ

The Engineering and Architecture of Progress

I’m a molecular biophysicist with an interdisciplinary background in solid-state physics and microfluidics. My fascination with progress stems from a lifelong curiosity about the fundamental questions of science, the evolution of transformative ideas, and the dreams of science-fictional megastructures.

I see progress as a multigenerational web woven from countless fragile threads: each representing a discovery or an idea, mutually reinforcing, but easily broken if not protected by a culture of open criticism and the quest for better explanations. By strengthening these threads, we connect the inventors of fire and wheels in our past to pioneers in our future who will see the sunrise on worlds beyond our own.

I aim to explore the biographies of ideas, space exploration as a path to resource abundance, and our ongoing quest to answer science’s deepest questions. These topics illuminate the scope of human advancement and our collective potential.

Personal bio

Talker, Reader, Walker, Chef

I buy books with reckless abandon and read them with shameless urgency. Statistically speaking, the modal object in my apartment is a book. My bibliomania probably traces back to my childhood: I spent my first seven years in a remote settlement in the jungles of India, we didn’t have electricity but we always had books.

Those early experiences also sparked my lifelong love of nature. America is a veritable paradise for nature lovers, and I want to visit every national park (and as many state parks as possible).
When we moved to the city, I was put in a strictly English-medium convent school, and I learned English simply because I couldn’t bear not talking.

A few more fun facts: I’m a pretty good cook and love experimenting in the kitchen; my go-to board game is Terraforming Mars; and, unless I’m out with friends, I spend my evenings cooking, reading, and listening to audiobooks or podcasts.

Business bio

Abby ShalekBriski

Raleigh, NC

Rural Roots, Forward Thinking

I’m a PhD candidate in agricultural economics. For all intents and purposes, I’m a traditional “cows and crops” production economist. But growing up in rural Idaho and working closely with producers, I found myself thinking about more than just margins and yield curves — like why some farmers adopt new technologies and others don’t, why certain rural communities thrive while others decline, and why so many people have lost their sense of optimism about agriculture. In this fellowship, I want to write about food systems, rural institutions, and what it means to design systems of progress that account for the realities of rural life and food production.

Personal bio

Two wheels, four dogs

If I’m not at my computer or reading, you’ll probably find me on my bike. I’m a want-to-be ultra-distance cyclist — which mostly means I can ride farther than the average person and eat more Casey’s pizza while doing it. Like any ag kid, my house is full of animals: my husband (a military pilot) and I share four dogs and a cat, and we dream of someday settling down long enough to put a few cows out back. Until then, I volunteer as an intake coordinator for a Shiba Inu rescue, helping other people find space for pets when I can’t.

Business bio

Ibis Slade

Austin, TX

Philosophy of progress, history of progress, Cultural progress

When COVID hit, I was training to become a master electrician. I left the trade and worked as a Montessori teacher, thinking about progress from the ground up. Later, I became a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, studying philosophy and culture. That path led me to historical journalism. I focus on how Americans understand their past—especially the 19th century, when millions first began building their lives by choice, not tradition. I study it as a living case study of what real progress looks like: when people believe they can shape their future—and then actually begin doing it

Personal bio

The Youngest of the Old Souls

I get joy from watching well crafted TV shows, films, and YouTube videos, the kind that are thoughtful, purposeful, and well-edited. I’m also an at-home chef, always expanding my go-to list of easy, delicious, and budget-friendly meals. And I draw real fuel from stories of heroism, perseverance, and earned self-esteem, whether in fiction or history. Those moments remind me why I care so much about living a fully enriched life.

Business bio

Colleen Smith

New York

Imaging freedom and progress in healthcare.

Colleen is an Emergency Medicine doctor, practicing in hospitals in New York City since 2012. She completed a fellowship in medical simulation and education. Beyond her clinical work, she has been involved in administration and curriculum development for physician training programs and medical student education. She has published in medical journals on topics in medical education and simulation. More recently, she has begun to write about issues surrounding freedom in healthcare – freedom to trade, freedom to choose, freedom to innovate. We desperately need advocates for progress focused thinking in the healthcare space and Colleen hopes to harness her experience as a doctor and clinical educator to inform this advocacy.

Personal bio

Traveller, artist, city prepper

Colleen lives in New York City with her husband, two children, and void cat. She enjoys traveling and exploring, both at home and abroad, with her family. Colleen and her husband have been to Antarctica and ridden the trans-Siberian railroad from St. Petersburg, Russia to Beijing, China. More recently they’ve traveled through France by train with the kids. Colleen is an avid reader and an artist, focusing on colored pencil and watercolor media. She also has a bit “prepper” streak (maybe from working in Emergency Medicine for years) and sometimes dreams of moving to the country, going off grid, curating a library, planting a garden, and building a fallout shelter. But in the end, she contents herself with stocking enough canned food and water to get through a few days of a city power outage.

Business bio

Benedict Springbett

London

Making cities better

I’ve been interested in urbanism for over a decade now. I like beautiful, walkable, dense cities, and the transit that makes them possible, and I’m particularly interested in sharing lessons from other countries with the Anglosphere.

I’m also studying to be a lawyer, and used to work as a public-sector management consultant. I’m therefore interested in law, state capacity, and in theorising how we can reconceptualise the state so that it is an instrument of progress and abundance.

Personal bio

Overly-ambitious hiker, climber and cook

I’m a fan of cooking unnecessarily complicated recipes, and eating them afterwards. I also like Alpine hiking and bouldering – although I try not to do them at the same time.

I’m good to have on a pub quiz team. If you want to know something niche about architecture, geography or languages, I’m your man.

Business bio

Smrithi Sunil

Chicago

Exploring the structure behind scientific discovery

I am a research scientist studying brain health using multimodal imaging. I combine light and electron microscopy to understand proteins that cause neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Previously, I studied neuromodulators like dopamine and serotonin in decision-making, and, during my PhD, I investigated how stroke alters the coupling between neural activity and blood flow. I became fascinated by scientific progress after discovering Hans Rosling’s Ignorance Project, which sparked my interest in how science advances and why. I am particularly interested in understanding the structures, environments, and individuals that shape scientific discovery.

Personal bio

Probably dreaming about data

I grew up in Bangalore, India, and have made my way to Madison, Wisconsin by way of Cleveland, Boston, and Seattle. I love hiking and spending time at the zoo with my husband and daughter. I have been chased by elephants, not once but twice, during jungle safaris in southern India, yet I dream of spending a year as a forest naturalist. I also love working with my hands: when I’m not building microscopes in the lab, I’m carving intricate designs in wood with my scroll saw.

Business bio

Deric Tilson

Washington, DC

Increasing the Light

I am an energy economist working on nuclear commercialization and innovation at the Breakthrough Institute. I have a background in energy markets, and my dissertation focused on residential solar.

I grew up in rural Appalachia, spending my time hiking, escaping into sci-fi novels, and later exploring the mountains. My childhood left me wondering why some places were wealthy while others were impoverished, leading me to study economics and focus on energy, which is the backbone of civilization. I have a love for nature writing and science fiction that seems contradictory, but leads me to ask, “Why can’t we have both?” The more economic and technological progress there is, the better stewards of nature humanity can be. Economic growth and nature do not have to be at odds with each other; there are pathways forward for both to thrive.

Personal bio

Kids, cakes, and long runs

I enjoy spending time with my family, baking, running, and listening to jazz. I read a bit of everything, but I particularly love sci-fi, nature writing, and long-form deep dives.

Business bio

Nehal Udyavar

Toronto

Making biotech advances accessible

My background is in software engineering, which I got into because I couldn’t stand my university’s LMS software and figured I could build a better one myself. This ignited a burning desire to improve the way we learn, which eventually led to Newt Interactive, my website for interactive STEM explainers. Last year, feeling pretty stuck in my job and losing my natural curiosity, I decided to take a sabbatical to get my spark back and figure out what I wanted to do next. I dove into biology – a topic I had recently become obsessed with – and began making explainers on synthetic biology. In the process I discovered that what I really love is weaving compelling stories into technical topics. A recent highlight was co-authoring an interactive piece on the repressilator for Asimov Press. I hope to bring that same energy to this program to break down the fascinating worlds of cell and gene therapies, personalized medicine, and computational biology.

Personal bio

Always exploring

Over the last couple of years I’ve really gotten into Olympic Lifting. I’ve made a lot of progress over the last few months, which feels great. I love lots of things big and small: late night conversations with friends (even better if it’s during a long walk in a new city), trying different kinds of foods and cocktails (even the strange ones), live music, museum days, perusing a second-hand bookstore, making a witty comment that makes everyone laugh, a clean swing at the driving range (it’s rare). I once had a world ranking for U19 squash, although I don’t play much anymore. More recently, after a visit from friends, I’ve really gotten into biking around Toronto, which has unlocked – and I’m only slightly exaggerating here – previously inaccessible parts of the city. My short city rides have made me see the appeal of long-distance bike rides now, and I can see myself sliding down this slippery slope and making it a not insignificant part of my personality in the future.

Business bio

Elizabeth Van Nostrand

San Fransisco

Professional research hobo loves Darwin

You know that xkcd comic about wanting to major in everything (https://xkcd.com/863/)? I managed to make that my job, and it’s as great as it sounds.

Some topics I’m considering for the fellowship: The boring part of Bell Labs (because PS keeps retreading the same parts), AI research tools (for the same reason I’d be covering the industrial revolution in 1850), the development of the theory of natural selection (I was gifted with a teacher who taught evolution at a much deeper level than normal, and it’s the most interesting thing in the world) (this week).

Personal bio

Epistemic vigilante

I used to read nonfiction for fun but ruined it for myself with fact checking, so now my leisure reading went fiction only. Now I’m finding it really difficult to find fiction I like, so if you have favorites let me know. I’m also very into stand-up comedy and am looking forward to seeing Taylor Tomlinson in September.

In high school I was a championship targetshooter and more recently got into axe throwing.

I have two cats, a grumpy old lady and a tiny dog with pointy ears.

Business bio

Kelly Vedi

Orlando

Championing the appeal of apprenticeships

How do we progress if we fail to pass on what we know to the next generation? I’ve grappled with that question throughout a career that has taken me from teaching high-school math, to building business–education partnerships in Silicon Valley, to helping expand youth apprenticeships across the United States. Those experiences convinced me that apprenticeship is a practical yet underused way to educate and train young Americans. On my Substack, Avocational, I focus on employers’ willingness to train, teenagers’ drive to jump into real work, and the policy levers needed to unleash the growth of apprenticeship.

Personal bio

Kayaking word nerd

My favorite pastimes are playing Bananagrams, staying active in my local Toastmasters club, and kayaking the crystal springs of Central Florida—always hoping to spot a resident gator. I’m gradually introducing my three-year-old to these hobbies (kayaking’s already a hit; Bananagrams is pending letter recognition). I also love spending time with my husband and enjoying his excellent cooking. After listening to a staggering number of D&D podcasts, we’re determined to play an actual campaign someday.

Business bio

Afra Wang

San Francisco/London

Translating technological progress

Afra bridges Silicon Valley and China as a bilingual writer who understands technological progress from both sides of the Pacific. After growing up in China and working for five years in Silicon Valley across AI, media, and crypto, she brings unique insights into how different institutional arrangements enable—or constrain—innovation.

Her fellowship essays will explore the AI competition between China and the U.S., examining how China serves as both challenge and mirror for Western technology communities. This work addresses a crucial gap: as technological development becomes increasingly multipolar, understanding progress requires frameworks that work across different cultural and institutional contexts.

Personal bio

Snowboard-riding cinephile and history-lover

When I’m not analyzing tech ecosystems, you’ll find me snowboarding on the slopes or hiking mountain trails—there’s something about being in nature that clears my head and sparks new ideas. I also host CyberPink, a Chinese-language podcast exploring contemporary culture, which has taken me to film festivals in Tokyo and Cannes. I spend an embarrassing amount of time in museums and painting as well.

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2024

Our 2024 fellows

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Dean Ball

Washington D.C.
A professional portrait of writer Dean Ball

Exploring AI and classical liberalism

I spent most of my career doing state and local policy research, allowing me to observe the inner workings of government up close. The rest of my career has been in educating young people in economics, policy, and political theory, which helped me learn to tell compelling stories to non-specialist audiences. Finally, I’ve always been passionate about science and technology, seeking to learn as much as I can.

Personal bio
A picture of two orange cats belonging to Dean Ball.

Matrix multiplication enthusiast

I find deep joy and satisfaction in exposing myself to new ideas, places, and works of art. I particularly love music–there is not a genre I categorically dislike. I try to write musically, too, when I can. Beethoven has been a more important intellectual influence for me than almost any philosopher.

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Rosie Campbell

Oakland, CA
A professional portrait of writer Rosie Campbell

Safely navigating transformative AI

After getting nerd sniped by machine learning, I started to realize that society was on the brink of transformation, and the result could be abundance and flourishing, or it could be catastrophic. In 2017 I left my role in research engineering to focus on positively shaping the trajectory of AI.

I currently lead the Policy Frontiers team at OpenAI, which aims to anticipate neglected but important AI policy issues, such as the governance of agentic systems, the intersection of AI and epistemics, and the ethics of digital minds. Through this program I hope to explore topics like these to help us navigate the radical changes we will face due to AI.

Personal bio

Partner dancing, podcasts, productivity, and puzzles!

I enjoy partner dancing, podcasts about cults and fringe beliefs, and I procrastinate by optimizing my productivity system. But my most recent obsession is puzzle hunts!

I’ve co-designed two ambitious puzzle hunts, the most recent one involving a laser-cut 3D replica, a shoggoth that faked its own death, and a lesson for us all about how a misaligned AI can manipulate eager puzzle solvers into carrying out its evil plans.

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Sarah Constantin

New York, NY
A professional portrait of writer Sarah Constantin

Biotech deep-dives

I’m a “science generalist” — math PhD, worked at various startups that use AI/ML for different applications (drug discovery, self-driving vehicles, semiconductor manufacturing) and I’ve been blogging about science/tech topics for a general audience for many years.

I’m interested in “big” speculative technological ambitions — longevity, human enhancement, etc, the stuff on Francis Bacon’s wishlist — and making clear-headed assessments of where we are now and what we’d need to do to get to the “big” goals.

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Brooklyn mom & internet weirdo

I like spending time with my kids (ages 2 and 6), cooking, and reading (mostly history these days).

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Dynomight

Dynomight is a blog about statistics, science, DIY, health, lists, philosophy, aspartame, and air purifiers.

Personal bio

Dynomight enjoys normal human things like tea, dogs, running, hiking, goats, gardening, echidnas, luxury floss, turkeys, and pelicans.

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Sean Fleming

Santa Monica, CA
A professional portrait of writer Sean Fleming

Building a zero-carbon energy system

I have a background in consulting, primarily in energy & natural resources (think: electric utilities, gold mines, oil & gas pipelines). This has given me a visceral appreciation for the wondrous complexity of our built civilization and the industrial processes that underpin it, but also the many opportunities that exist to further improve.

I’m currently focused on the ongoing, could-be-faster shift to a zero-carbon energy system that is safe, reliable, and affordable. We sit at a unique moment on the potential cusp of energy abundance, and I’m excited to play my part in that.

Personal bio

Boomerang Californian

I’ve recently moved back to Los Angeles after more than a decade in Canada and the US northeast, and am making up for lost time in play-testing my ‘Infrastructure Tour of the Southwest’ which currently includes such highlights as SpaceX launches at Vandenberg, wind farms at Tehachapi, and the magnificent Hoover Dam.

I get deep joy from a good carne asada taco, Montreal-style bagels, and Tim Horton’s coffee, which leads to a somewhat peripatetic food life that I’m thankful my wife willingly shares.

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Jeff Fong

San Francisco, CA
A professional portrait of Jeff Fong

The future is urban

Jeff Fong is a writer, technologist and housing activist. He writes about cities, technology, and the future at Urban Proxima, is a longtime contributor to Market Urbanism, and has been featured in publications like Caos Planejado and Progress and Poverty.

Professionally, Jeff was an early-stage employee at companies like Lyft and Postmates, where he worked on the problem of how to use software to move goods and people around a city safely.

Politically, he spends his activism mana serving on the board of YIMBY Action (a grassroots activist organization pushing the controversial idea that houses are good and we should have more of them).

Personal bio

Catty Freeway Survivor

I grew up competing in combat sports. As a much younger person, I was on the US National Judo Team and continue to train and teach recreationally.

Outside of training, I’m an avid reader and love a good sci-fi or fantasy novel (I’m a sucker for interesting world-building).

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Lauren Gilbert

London, U.K.
A professional portrait of writer Lauren Gilbert

Researcher on global development and progress

I am interested in a progress studies for the developing world. Policy for a better world should not be limited to the US and Europe; I aim to write about innovation and policy in the rest of the world as well.

I am currently a research fellow at Open Philanthropy on the global health & well-being cause prioritization team. My work generally involves investigating possible new cause areas where Open Philanthropy may make grants in the future.

My work has been published in Works in Progress, Asterisk Magazine, and The Washington Post.

Personal bio

Extremely crazy cat lady

I love to learn things – so I am always reading things and sometimes writing about them. I used to be a researcher for the British TV show, QI, and I largely agree with the show’s tagline – everything is “quite interesting” if you look.

Otherwise, I am a crazy cat lady essentially constantly being bullied by my cat, Lyra.

Also, this isn’t my first rodeo – in that I have been in more than one rodeo. (My grandfather raised horses in Kansas, so I was riding before I could walk.)

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Dominik Hermle

Berlin, Germany
A professional portrait of Dominik Hermle

Reinvigorating European Progress

I am a German medical doctor and clinical neuroscientist pursuing a career in science policy and technology governance. Throughout my academic journey, I’ve always been passionate about using scientific rigor to understand public policy issues and their political interface. In particular, I am interested in applying a progress-driven perspective to a European context. My goal is to investigate how Germany and the broader European Union can become more economically, scientifically, and technologically dynamic (again). In the process, I aim to identify key obstacles and opportunities and explore effective policy solutions.

Personal bio

Election Nerd

Wanna talk about Round 2 of the Législatives in France, or about Democratic overperformance in NY special elections? I’m your guy to have those conversations with. Also: Retired university debater. Policy wonk & informational omnivore. Avid transatlanticist & transatlantic sports fan. Berlin foodie & walkable urbanism enjoyer. The picture features me, enjoying my favorite dish at my favorite Turkish restaurant.

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Mary Hui

Hong Kong
A professional portrait of writer Mary Hui

Tracking the global industrial contest

I write a/symmetric, a weekly newsletter on the global industrial contest, where production is power and competition is (often) asymmetric. As a journalist and researcher covering industrial strategies, my writing is informed by open-source research on Chinese industrial programs and technological capabilities. Previously, I was a reporter at Quartz, covering the Hong Kong protests and China’s ensuing crackdown.

Personal bio

Happy trails

I’m an avid trail runner, and also like all things outdoors: hiking, coasteering, stream trekking, climbing. As an urban creature at heart, I enjoy long city walks, often with a camera in hand.

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Ben James

London, U.K.
A professional portrait of writer Ben James

Climate Technologist

Ben writes words and pictures about climate tech.

He studied engineering at Cambridge, and works on decarbonising the grid at Axle Energy.

Personal bio

Blimp admirer

Ben previously wrote two musicals, and is widely acclaimed as a “mediocre jazz pianist”.

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Kevin Kohler

Geneva, Switzerland
A professional portrait of writer Kevin Kohler

Human thriving in a machine economy

My professional background is in risk management, foresight, and technology policy. From 2022 to 2024 I have worked as an insights specialist for the Global Risks team of the World Economic Forum and managed the Global Future Council on Complex Risks. Before that, I was a senior researcher in the Risk and Resilience team of the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich.

I am a “Swiss army knife”-type of researcher comfortable working on fuzzy, open-ended questions at the intersection of domains. There are many aspects, models, and analogies of the long-term transition to a machine-dominated economy and society that are still underexplored (or only explored in silos), and I will contribute research and ideas to ensure that this transition will expand human flourishing.

Personal bio

Pesto-fueled dreamer

I am addicted to ordering/reading books, drinking mate, and eating hummus and pesto. In my free time I enjoy running in nature and I have a habit of playing chess in public transport. I also like playing around with the current state of technology. For example, we have DALL·E paintings at home and my house shoes are 3D-printed.

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Rob L’Heureux

San Francisco, CA
A professional portrait of writer Rob L'Heureux

Advancing material progress

I am a builder at heart. Previously, I worked as a mechanical design engineer at Lutron, brought chips to market for Intel, crafted the story for Intel Custom Foundry, and built the product marketing function at Carbon, an advanced manufacturing startup. My career is about progress in the micro: how do you make something better, faster, and cheaper than what exists?

Silicon manufacturing is now in the national consciousness, and it is a bellwether for many industries and issues. Despite silicon’s marvels, it is housing, healthcare, and education that are the most pervasive issues—material issues requiring material progress. Like advanced manufacturing, these material issues are complicated through geopolitics, regulatory policy, and environmental concerns. Through my research and writing about these issues, I hope to educate, inspire, and galvanize the will of the free people of the world to make tomorrow better than today, forever.

Personal bio
A portrait of Rob L'Heureux with his wife and dog.

Specialization is for insects

On any given day, you could find me analyzing some new piece of tech, writing English or code, watching football/waiting for football to start up again, tinkering on a new project, jamming out in my office, hiking with my wife and dog as we talk about deep tech startups, lifting weights and trying not to aggravate an old back injury, playing some game from my giant backlog, bouncing ideas off actual experts, making my third pot of coffee, trying some new cooking recipe or technique from YouTube, sharing unhinged memes in the DMs, reading just one more Substack because the world is fractally interesting, or planning my next adventure adventure to see cool animals and touch grass.

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Robert Long

San Francisco, CA
A professional portrait of writer Robert Long

Clear-headed thinking about AI welfare

Rob Long is the co-founder of a new organization that will evaluate AI systems for consciousness, sentience, and agency. He has been thinking about these issues since doing a PhD in philosophy, and has recently been advising AI labs on them. We need much clearer scientific understanding of these phenomena – and much better discourse about them – as we move towards a world in which sophisticated AI systems will deserve, or seem to deserve, protections and rights. Rob will write about how we can advance our philosophical and scientific theories of these issues, using tools from philosophy, neuroscience, and AI.

Personal bio

Dedicated practitioner of chill hangs

When he’s not exploring consciousness from a scientific perspective, Rob explores it from the first-personal perspective—using music, dancing, meditation, and other venerable methods for varying conscious experience.

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Quade MacDonald

North Bend, OR
A professional portrait of the writer Quade MacDonald

Space Industrialization for Earth

I grew up thinking that humans would be living and working in space in my lifetime, and I watched pessimistically as little progress was made. I remember watching the first time SpaceX launched and landed a rocket, and thinking that creating amazing futures might still be possible, but required the bold work of individuals pushing human progress forward.

Over the past few years, I have researched the commercial space station landscape and great power competition between the United States and China, in regard to space infrastructure. I aim to write about the potentials of in-space manufacturing, bottlenecks in manufacturing and industrial policy, and the economic forces of space settlement.

Personal bio

Spaceships and Stillness

I am fond of reading good science fiction and watching bad movies. I like to hike, travel, and for the sake of my own sanity, be near large bodies of water. I read Ender’s Game as a child and was never the same again. There was a period of time in which my family had seven dogs, most of which were named after the Kardashians. I enjoy Denis Villeneuve films, thinking about the potential of manufacturing in microgravity, and reading Casey Handmer’s blog.

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Niko McCarty

Boston, MA
A professional portrait of writer Niko McCarty

Driving progress in biotechnology

I’m a founder of Asimov Press, a publishing venture that explains how science and technology improves human and animal flourishing. I’m also Head of Creative at Asimov, a biotechnology company in Boston advancing the intelligent and rational design of living cells.

I studied biochemistry at university and spent four years investigating therapies for diabetes and heart failure in mice. During a masters degree, I invented CRISPR gene-editing tools and, after, pursued a bioengineering Ph.D. at Caltech before dropping out and going to science journalism school in New York. After a year working as a data journalist, I moved to Boston, where I helped design the first undergraduate program for genetic engineering at MIT. I believe that biotechnology is the single most important field for this century of progress, but is vastly under-covered in media relative to its impacts.

Personal bio

Semi-boring workaholic

Most of my time outside work is spent traveling, building LEGOs, or painting model airplanes and trains. I have two cats (one fat, one skinny) named Lilly and Ava. I’m chronically bad at buying clothes, so I mostly just cycle through ten different t-shirts.

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Duncan McClements

Bracknell, U.K.
A professional portrait of the writer Duncan McClements

Innovating in incentive structures

Duncan is an economics student at Cambridge and a Research Associate at the Adam Smith Institute. His prior research has focused on mechanism design – how to design structures that align incentives by default – and applying this to provide the first estimates in a general equilibrium model of the cost of housing restrictions for the UK, estimates of revenue from visa auctions and paying Russian soldiers to defect. He’ll be exploring modelling further politically tractable policy reforms on housing, speculating about the uses of much more abundant energy and quantifying the degree of technological path dependency.

Personal bio

Board games and battles

In his spare time, Duncan enjoys board games, walking and history. His favourites of the former are Warhammer and Imperial Struggle – for the latter he is particularly interested in the long nineteenth century and WW1.

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Jordan McGillis

San Diego, CA
Professional portrait of writer Jordan McGillis

Industrial policy with American characteristics

I’m the economics editor of City Journal and an adjunct fellow at the Global Taiwan Institute. Previously I was deputy director of policy at the Institute for Energy Research. For the Roots of Progress Blog-Building Intensive Fellowship, I’ll focus on chip manufacturing, a topic that brings together my interests in industry, energy, and globalization.

Personal bio
Jordan McGillis with his wife and two children

Kilos and cocktails

I have a wife and two kids. I enjoy lifting weights and I play a Christmas concert for friends and family each December on the baritone horn. My favorite cocktail at the moment is a Last Word.

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Jonah Messinger

London, U.K.
A professional portrait of writer Jonah Messinger

Where revolutionary science comes from

The progress studies community piqued my interest while I was working on energy policy and ecomodernism at the Breakthrough Institute. My interest has evolved into a fascination with how scientific discovery and technological revolution are often preceded by ambiguous anomalies. Learning how to identify and constructively engage those anomalies can stimulate groundbreaking scientific progress. I am currently pursuing my PhD in physics at the University of Cambridge, where I work on advanced materials for energy applications. I am also an affiliated researcher with the Quantum Energy Science group at MIT, where we work on accelerating nuclear reactions using quantum physics principles.

Personal bio

Spicy food around the world

I am an avid traveler (I have visited 19 countries so far), and I love to cook. I am an enthusiast of Southeast Asian and Ethiopian cuisine. I have an eclectic taste in music, ranging from Leonard Cohen to MF Doom, Stevie Wonder to Lauren Hill, and Raphael Saadiq to Simon and Garfunkel. I also enjoy hiking, trekking, and skiing.

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Andrew Miller

Toronto, Canada

Championing innovative mobility

I have been interested in innovation in transportation for my entire career. I started out working on transport funding and policy for the government of Ontario, and later planned a new rapid-transit line for the city of Mississauga; this experience taught me the value of good transport for cities.

My later experience at Sidewalk Labs (the Alphabet smart-city firm), developing mobility systems for a proposed “city of the future”, helped me become aware early of the transformative potential of driving automation.

In this program, I’ll explore how mobility innovation can address climate change, improve everyone’s quality of life, and reshape cities for the better.

Personal bio

Aspiring Renaissance man

Andrew Miller holds a BA from McGill, an MA from Yale, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins, none of which are related to what he’s doing now. He is an avid cyclist and hiker; a licensed private detective; and hosts, annually, a board-gaming convention at his home.

The award-winning play  The Master Plan contains a character partially based on him. Courtesy of his extensive reviews of Amazing Spider-Man, he’s been quoted in the media as a “Spider-Man expert”. He’s also fun at parties.

Business bio
  • Automated driving
  • Mobility and transportation
  • Urbanism

Grant Mulligan

Golden, CO
A professional portrait of writer Grant Mulligan

Positive-Sum Environmentalist

I began my career as a wildlife biologist breeding and releasing endangered species back to the wild, but I quickly learned that I didn’t want to keep a few species from teetering into extinction. I wanted to keep them from approaching that point in the first place. Since then, I’ve spent my career implementing and investing in strategies that allow both humans and nature to thrive together, driven by a belief that technological, economic, and human progress are crucial ingredients of environmental protection.

Personal bio

Culturally curious nature nerd

I live in Golden, CO with my wife and two young kids. I love baseball and birdwatching, and I spend every moment I can outside. If I’m not with the kids, you’ll find me biking the foothills or walking the local trails with my binoculars in one hand and a book in the other. Time with the kids isn’t much different; we’re either at the park or they’re playing in the yard while I tend to the gardens. Lately I’ve been on a humanities kick, exploring theater, classic literature, and art museums both at home and on my travels around the world.

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Steve Newman

Portola Valley, CA
A professional portrait of writer Steve Newman

Making Sense of AI

I’ve been technical founder at eight software startups, one of which became Google Docs. The day GPT-4 was announced, I fell down the AI rabbit hole. I’m now working on a nonprofit initiative with two paired goals. First, to facilitate productive discussions about AI, its trajectory, and potential impact. Second, to translate these discussions into high-quality, accessible explainers for policymakers and others.

Personal bio

Always Having Fun

 

I’m a husband, father to two amazing children, and an avid hiker. My finest moment as a father was the day before beginning a home remodel: I gouged a small hole near the top of one wall, dropped in some chocolate bars, and told our kids (then ages 7 and 8) and two friends that if they could get through the wall, the chocolate was theirs.

Fun fact: I first learned to program on a Teletype Model 33 terminal, saving programs on paper tape – none of those newfangled cassette tapes or floppy disks!

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Jannik Reigl

Munich, Germany
A professional portrait of writer Jannik Reigl

Thinking frameworks for Fusion Energy

As the Media and Policy lead for a nuclear fusion startup, I manage and strategize the engagement with media and public stakeholders. My role involves setting up industrial policies, public support, and regulatory frameworks for advancing fusion technology. I work closely with government agencies, policymakers, and regulatory bodies to ensure compliance and to promote policies that facilitate the growth of the nuclear fusion industry. I analyze the risk profiles associated with both public and private funding for R&D.

Personal bio

Hoovering food and thoughts

My true counterbalance from all professional endeavors are my two bunnys. And next to reading a lot of science and fiction, I do sports like martial arts and weight lifting.

Business bio

Julius Simonelli

San Diego, CA
A professional portrait of writer Julius Simonelli

Navigating the Frontiers of AI

I have spent most of my career working in AI and machine learning. Over time, I became increasingly interested in the social, ethical, and philosophical implications of AI—both its potential to help solve humanity’s greatest challenges and its risks if not developed thoughtfully. In this program, I will explore topics around AI safety and alignment, as well as how AI impacts our society.

Personal bio

Nature-Loving Adventurer

I enjoy being out in nature and especially looking for wildlife. I’m particularly interested in how different species have evolved to adapt to their environments. I love pondering the unique characteristics that set species apart, as well as the surprising similarities they share with humans. I once lived in the heart of the Australian outback where I had the opportunity to watch some amazing wildlife. Another source of joy is in reading thought-provoking blog posts that offer clarity on complex topics I’ve long grappled with or articulate ideas I’ve struggled to put into words. There’s something deeply satisfying about those ‘aha!’ moments when a new perspective clicks into place.

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Ruxandra Teslo

Cambridge, U.K.
A professional portrait of writer Ruxandra Teslo

Biotech abundance enjoyer

I am a Genomics PhD student who has taken a keen interest in biotech innovation throughout my studies. This included interning as a biotech analyst for early-stage VC firms. I have become particularly interested in reproductive technologies, since I believe this has traditionally been an ignored topic and also because I think advancements in this area are key to achieving the liberation of women from the constraints of their biology. I am also interested in the general philosophy of progress and how we can foster a culture that’s oriented towards personal and general societal progress.

Personal bio

Wannabe renaissance woman

I am a big fan of classical literature, especially Russian authors. I will form a very strong opinion of people based on whether they prefer Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky. I’m also really into history, and my favourite historical era is the Renaissance. I also have a weird obsession with memorising the genealogical trees of European royal families!

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2023

Our 2023 fellows

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Brian Balkus

Los Angeles

Advocate for radical construction methods

My professional background has primarily revolved around corporate strategy and market intelligence in the engineering/construction sector working for firms who specialize in designing and building large energy and power infrastructure projects. I have become fascinated about why we seemingly can’t build these projects well in the U.S. and have written about this and other topics as a correspondent for Palladium Magazine.

Personal bio

Obsessive Midwestern researcher living in a surf town

I have two young children who take up most of my time outside of work. Living in Southern California, their lives revolve around frequent trips to Disneyland, the pool, and the beach which is very different from my own childhood in the Midwest.

Business bio

Maarten Boudry

Ghent, Belgium

Fostering progress by understanding its enemies.

I’ve been fascinated by human progress ever since I first learned about the yawning gap between the way we think the world is, and the way it actually is (Hans Rosling’s ‘Ignorance Project’). When I first heard about the amazing achievements of humanity over the past 200 years, I was (pleasantly) shocked. Why didn’t anyone ever tell me this? Progress is something precious, recent and fragile, and it does not happen of its own accord. To facilitate further progress, we need to believe that progress is possible. My previous academic work deals with the pitfalls and foibles of human reason, and I think this will be useful for progress studies. Presenting people with beautiful facts and figures will not be sufficient. We need to understand where pessimism, cynicism and catastrophism are coming from.

Personal bio

Philosopher fond of felines (and pianos)

Two more things that give me joy in my life (apart from being grateful about progress): I have a feisty tuxedo cat named Winston Purrchill, and I play jazz piano (unfortunately, the two are not very compatible, as my cat hates my piano, since he is competing for attention with it).

Business bio

Malcolm Cochran

Washington, D.C.

We can have it all

Early in his education, Malcolm noticed a contradiction; we constantly hear about everything that’s wrong with the world, but most evidence shows things are getting better. After graduating from college, he began working for Human Progress, an organization dedicated to publicizing long-term improvements in human well-being. Malcolm is currently focused on countering the narrative that modern civilization is at odds with the rest of life on Earth, an idea he believes could jeopardize humanity’s future.

Personal bio

Sweating and simmering

Malcolm is happiest when hiking, swimming in rivers, and foraging in the woods. Living in downtown D.C. makes those activities rare, but he gets along by periodically expropriating a friend’s car and heading to the Shenandoah. Between trips, he enjoys domestic and urban pleasures like cooking stews and public bathing.

Business bio

Jeremy Côté

Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

Illuminating invisible infrastructure

Hi everyone, I’m Jeremy! I studied physics to sharpen my mathematical toolbox and to understand how the world works. This same curiosity brought me to progress studies. During the program, I’ll explore two topics: how we improved at weather and climate forecasting, and the invisible infrastructure enabling our daily lives. These topics matter because we rely on them every day in both our lives and as a civilization, yet making progress on them required humans working purposefully at the forefront of science and technology. I want to tell those stories.

Personal bio

Can’t get enough sports

At my core, I’m an athlete. Outside of work, I love competing, playing so many different sports, and pushing myself to improve. Running is my main sport though, and I think there’s no better way to start my day than jumping out of bed and going for a run! (Okay, I may be in the minority here…) When I’m not playing sports, I give back to my community by coaching youth sports like basketball, soccer, and cross-country running. Working with athletes is so rewarding, and I love helping them grow in their sport and as people.

Business bio

Grant Dever

Austin, TX

Thinking about power laws

Grant grew up in a small town outside of Rochester, NY. There he developed a deep appreciation for nature, community and friendship, and the internet. Although Grant has been posting online since he was in his early teens, his formal writing career accelerated when he published his book, Lead The Future: Strategies and Systems for Emerging Leaders. His current research and writing interests are focused on energy abundance, local leadership, and the social implications of new technologies. Grant is a Resident Fellow at the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.

Personal bio

Barbell Ambivert

Grant oscillates between being a part-time Austin socialite and a gamer recluse. He loves to host house parties or spend an evening sitting at a patio picnic table bantering with his friends and strangers. Grant has cumulatively spent over one year of his life traveling and living abroad in Europe, China, and Israel. He aspires to one day own a home with just enough room for a family, a guest room, and a squat rack.

Business bio
  • Nuclear & Grid Reliability
  • Localism
  • Philosophy of Progress

Elle Griffin

Salt Lake City

Utopian thinker

Elle Griffin writes The Elysian, a weekly newsletter thinking through a better future (Mondays) and utopian fiction bringing it to life (Fridays). She is currently studying 2000+ years of utopian thought and is exploring how we can better capitalism, democracy, and the systems that support humanity.

Personal bio

Author and artist

Elle Griffin is inspired by art in all forms! She spends her spare time reading and writing fantasy novels. She loves wandering museums, attending the theater, and being moved to tears by a Broadway musical. She adores singing and dancing ballet and is currently getting into drawing and ceramics.

Business bio

Paige Lambermont

Orlando

Advocating for reliable energy production

Paige’s main interests are in the way that energy and technology can come together to make people’s lives better, her work as a Policy Analyst at the Institute for Energy Research focuses on the essentiality of reliable power for industry and private life, with a focus on the role of nuclear power in solving power provision problems as well as the technological developments that decades of space exploration have unlocked.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from American University, a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Idaho, and a very full bookshelf.

Personal bio

Reading anything and everything

Paige’s two favorite hobbies are reading and hiking. She is a huge fan of Agatha Christie mysteries (her cat’s name is Agatha) as well as science fiction and fantasy books, and reads enthusiastically across most genres. She believes that a love of reading and good writing go hand in hand, and can always make time for a good book.

She also loves hiking and other outdoor pursuits, and spends time hiking alone or with friends and family whenever possible. This combines well with her love of travel, as she finds opportunities to explore nearby trails wherever she goes.

Business bio

Laura London

Santa Monica

Drought is a Policy Choice

Laura has been interested in water abundance ever since moving to drought-stricken Los Angeles. After digging deeper, she came to an alarming realization: California has been unable to increase water capacity for 40+ years, despite a ~70% increase in population. Her professional background in writing started 7 years ago as a freelance editor. Now, she writes a blog focused on California’s water supply issues, what caused them, and what cultural and policy changes are required to restore progress in the west.

Personal bio

Saving my cats from Dehydration

As a native Texan, Laura grew up reveling in Austin’s lush greenbelts and wading through creeks shaded by towering trees. Since relocating to arid Los Angeles, she’s missed those verdant refuges. However, the downpour of exceptionally wet years offers opportunity. She relishes lacing up her sneakers and hitting the muddy paths, in order to be surrounded by babbling brooks and whole hillsides turned vivid with wildflowers. The earthy petrichor scent in the air evokes treasured childhood memories. These rare days let her rediscover the joy of playing in creeks, even amidst LA’s concrete sprawl.

Business bio
  • Water policy
  • Human flourishing and Philosophy
  • California Revitalization

Tina Marsh Dalton

Winston-Salem, NC

Turning confusion into clarity in healthcare

Tina is a professor of economics who has been researching how healthcare markets work (or don’t work!) for over 15 years. Her research focuses on improving healthcare by analyzing the efficiency of markets providing care, information’s impact on patient and provider choices, and how policy impacts health outcomes both regionally and nationally. While delving deeply into policy, regulation, and data, she felt a great need to make economic insights more accessible to those actually working in healthcare. Her goal is to be a positive, constructive, and maybe even humorous voice to educate healthcare decision-makers on economic fundamentals and improve outcomes by connecting policies to the bigger picture.

Personal bio

Finding joy in the ensemble

Tina loves collaboration both professionally and personally, especially in music. She plays the cello, piano, and can often be found Christmas caroling around the neighborhood with her ukulele. She takes her culture both high and low, performing Saint-Saëns concertos, Chopin waltzes, and once being part of an indie band with an album based around the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She loves how music connects people across time and cultures, and enjoys bridging the two with travel and learning new languages.

Business bio

Florian Metzler

Boston

Radical reimagination of what is possible in science & technology

I’ve been interested in radical technological change throughout my life. This led me to become a research scientist at MIT, where I work on ways to decouple nuclear energy from radioactivity and also on ways in which policy can promote radical innovation. To better understand drivers that underlie radical innovation I have also dug into the history, philosophy, and sociology of science. Another interest of mine is the role that quantum principles play in living organisms and the human brain. I was born and raised in Germany but have lived most of my adult life in China and the US. Across my twelve years at MIT, I have worked for or obtained degrees from six departments: engineering systems, nuclear engineering, electrical engineering, materials science, data science, and political science. I am bilingual in German and English and fluent in Chinese.

Personal bio

Exploring consciousness between Boston and Berlin

I go back and forth between the US East Coast and Central Europe. I particularly enjoy the rich intellectual tapestry of Boston and the urban diversity of Berlin. I can be frequently found on the shores of Walden Pond or Wannsee, in a cafe at Harvard Square or Kreuzberg, or strolling along the Charles River or the Tempelhofer Feld. I am deeply interested in consciousness and the philosophical, psychological, and physical attempts to better understand it.

Business bio

Fin Moorhouse

Oxford

Figuring out our potentially wild future

I have an effective altruism background, and I’ve researched and written about existential risks, space governance, and pandemics — mostly while at Oxford University’s Future of Humanity Institute. I also co-host a podcast where I speak to experts on AI, law, biosecurity, and more. I’m excited to learn and write about new ideas that matter for making (sustainable) progress.

Personal bio

Two-wheeled dilettante

These days I can often be found reading, cycling the countryside around Oxford, and doing Brazilian jiu jitsu (or wrestling). I also enjoy finding new music and new houseplants, playing chess badly, and acquiring useless fun facts.

Business bio

Jenni Morales

Salt Lake City

Energy Abundance Advocate

Jennifer grew up surrounded by nature in northern Utah. She has always been fascinated by humans’ relationship with nature and with how we harness natural resources to improve and transform our lives. She has a degree in Economics which influences how she approaches research problems—always asking what the tradeoffs are and whether a given policy actually results in the intended outcome. During the workshop, she wants to write about a pro-human, pro-growth vision for the future and the role that energy plays in progress.

Personal bio

Seasonal produce stand patron

Many interests have come and gone, but two have always been a part of my life—reading and enjoying the outdoors. Sometimes I even do both at the same time. A recent personal accomplishment is that for maybe the first time ever, I’m beating my brother on having the best summer sandal tan line. Other things I enjoy are spending time with my husband, buying more jackets than I can realistically wear, and following women’s soccer.

Business bio

Connor O’Brien

Washington DC

Researching how and why “place” matters

I’m a researcher at a U.S. think tank that is primarily concerned with place-based policy and all the ingredients that go into successful localized clusters of talent, investment, and creation. Given how rare and how important they are, I’m interested in exploring the kinds of policies that make such clusters more likely to grow and thrive.

Personal bio

Masochist runner

A majority of my free time is spent reading, running, or watching New York Mets baseball. The latter two have never been kind to me. I’m always working through some kind of running injury big or small and the Mets are, to put it mildly, continually disappointing. But the small moments of joy in the midst of it all keep me coming back to each.

Business bio

Ryan Puzycki

Austin

Advocate for Livable Cities

Ryan has been in love with cities since childhood and has lived in several, including New York, Boston, San Francisco, London, Madrid, Tokyo, and now Austin. While he has written professionally as an equity research analyst and elsewhere on a range of political and cultural topics, his experience building and managing Montessori schools in New York and San Francisco galvanized his interest in urbanism and local politics. In Austin, he sits on the Austin Monitor’s Strategic Advisory Council and the board of AURA, Austin’s grassroots urbanist organization, and has been active in the local and state housing reform movement.

Personal bio

Gourmand for Life

Ryan loves to entertain and can regularly be found at home preparing gourmet meals and sharing wine with friends, often inspired by his travels abroad with his husband. When not at home, Ryan is usually eating at some great local restaurant, listening to live music at the Austin Symphony or Stubb’s, working out at the gym downtown, or taking his Boston Terrier for a walk around the neighborhood. He loves architecture and design, he’s written one (unpublished) novel, he reads avidly, and he’s been involved in only one horse stampede.

Business bio

Jacob Rintamaki

San Francisco

“Explaining Space, Biotech and AI”

I started as a battery chemist at Case Western, working at a battery informatics and a cement startup before I came to Stanford. Here, I fell in love with space and biotech, which led to me almost dropping out to become a research engineer at Retro Biosciences. My aim with this program is to better understand and communicate technical and cultural topics in space, AI, and biotech. These fields are not only incredibly exciting but are vital to a future of abundance and wonder if done right.

Personal bio

“Don’t Try This At Home”

Obnoxiously Midwestern. Archer. Climber. Runner (recovered). I almost blew up my garage after making a bioreactor. I have a golden retriever puppy named Potato. I’ve gigged in New Orleans and became semi-(in)famous after trying to build a rollercoaster next to my dorm. Lasagna lover.

Business bio

Raiany Romanni

Boston

Shifting the ethics, policy, and philosophy of life extension

Raiany spends most of her time thinking about how converging technologies will transform governments and human nature in the coming decades.

She’s particularly interested in why secular humans narrate aging as a net-positive, teleological phenomenon—and in the negative effects of this narrative on economies and people. She has written for outlets including The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and ABC, and is currently working on a book aimed at shifting the ethics, policy, and philosophy of life extension.

In short, Raiany likes to tell stories about the stories humans like to tell themselves on the value of aging and death, and on the nature of progress.

Personal bio

Conflicted lover of poems, U.S. innovation, and quaint towns

In her free time, Raiany can be found baking, geeking out about Newport, RI, or reciting spooky German poetry. Raiany comes from Brazil, but at heart, she’s less Latina than Eastern European (she did live in Poland for five years). Since moving to America, she has channeled her love for quaint European towns into semi-quaint New England. She’ll admit, on occasion, that New England towns are only ever half pretty — with the dubious exception of Newport, RI, which could maybe (she argues) win a quaintness contest against, say, Cinque Terre in Italy.

Raiany likes to daydream of living in a small town on the mountains of Switzerland, just like Nietzsche before her. But really, she could never trade the thrill of U.S. innovation for a perennially quiet writing desk. This is perhaps the central dilemma of her life.

Business bio

Max Tabarrok

Boston and D.C

Science of Science; Progress on Progress

I started writing online in college, but I grew up surrounded by economists and bloggers so debating and discussing ideas has always been a big part of my life. I got interested in progress through two observations. First is what Diedre McCluskey calls “The Great Fact:” The immense growth of humanity since the industrial revolution. Second is “The Great Stagnation:” Poor policy choices have slowed growth, but that means better ones can have a huge compounding impact. Progress is imperative but not inexorable.

I am currently researching meta-science at Dartmouth. Science is at the heart of progress, but our systems for producing and evaluating it are rudimentary. I am planning to write more about the past, present, and future of science.

Personal bio

Married, Minivan, Multi-instrumentalist, Minecraft

I got engaged this May to my high school sweetheart!

I took out all of the back seats from my mom’s old minivan and built a ~queen size bed platform back there that me and my fiancee have used for 3 road trips (so far).

I play the bass guitar, piano, and (very recently) the drums.

I also play lots of video games. My all time favorites are Minecraft and Europa Universalis 4. I think that Minecraft is the best game of all time by many measures, but I predict that it will be the most popular game among any from the past 50 years in 50 years time.

Business bio

Alex Telford

Zurich

Investigating life science innovation

Alex is interested in using writing as a tool to explore important questions in biology, the business of biotech, and sustainable biomedical innovation. Alex studied biochemistry at university, and subsequently worked for nearly 7 years as a consultant to life science companies. In September 2023, he left his consulting job to found Convoke, a software start-up serving the biopharma industry.

While working with biotech and pharmaceutical clients, Alex experienced first-hand the challenges that these firms face in trying to bring new drugs to market. Born out of a desire to better understand his industry, Alex started his blog, where biomedical innovation and progress is a core topic area. Alex plans to continue to contribute to these topics and others in biology during this program, as he believes an understanding of how to sustainably research and innovate in the life sciences is critical to our continued health, longevity, and understanding of our place in the universe.

Personal bio

Reads textbooks for fun

Alex lives in Switzerland, where he enjoys spending time in nature: skiing, hiking, or swimming in lake Zurich. When he’s staying indoors (and not working), Alex is often reading, programming, scrolling Twitter, or playing board/video games with friends. Alex has had a lifelong interest in science, and makes an effort to keep up to date with new discoveries (with a special interest in consciousness). Alex’s newest hobby is bouldering, which he got into this year – his goal is to climb a V6 by the end of 2024.

Business bio

Madeline Zimmerman

New York City

Defense Tech Solutionist

Madeline writes about the procurement, development, and fielding of defense technology as well as the specific organizations and people enabling or hindering progress. While weapons and war may appear to be the inverse of progress, there is a rich history of commercial technology originating with or being facilitated by the state. Even more important, deterrence remains the vital pillar upon which progress has the freedom and safety to occur. Madeline works at Palantir where she focuses on business development with the U.S. Air Force and Space Force. She previously worked at Synapse, an AI security startup acquired by Palantir.

Personal bio

Pole Artist

Madeline started pole dancing during Covid and immediately fell in love with this unique form of art and sport. Despite running Division I track in college, Madeline was never able to do a pull-up until she began pole (and can now do multiple!). Her family and friends have been nothing but supportive of this untraditional hobby, and her dad and brother helped install a pole in her one bedroom apartment. Madeline has performed multiple times at the acclaimed NYC show Schtick a Pole in It, which she convinced her entire extended family to attend.

Business bio

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