2 girls + 7 months + 17 countries + more than 200 encounters = the Energy Wor...

Google Tech Talks June, 13 2008 ABSTRACT In January 2007, two young engineers set off to understand how, from Norway to Brazil, from Zambia to Pakistan, entrepreneurs, inventors and civil servants are striving to address the challenges that global warming and the constrained resources of fossil fuels are presenting the 21rst century with. Blandine will be happy to present you with some of the interesting initiatives that Elodie and her collected during this trip, and discuss with you how energy, environment and development interact. Speaker: Blandine Antoine Blandine Antoine has long been keen to broaden her horizons by meeting and working with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Internships and studies in Texas, Russia, Japan, California and more recently Massachusetts have given ground to her conviction that the time she was living in was one of exchanges and unrestrained creativity for those willing to stop, listen and discuss others intuitions, needs and constraints. Her long-lasting interest in the different forms of energy prompted her to take this conviction a step further and embark, with Elodie Renaud, on the Energy World Tour, a 7-month investigation of what energy innovations look like around the world. Their goal? Meet with those who tackle energy challenges, and make their works known to a broader public Since tomorrow is already at our door, Blandne and Elodie felt that these reports would have more impact by supporting another project, targeting younger people. They thus founded Prométhée, a non-profit dedicated to promoting education on energy science and technology which developed class material to be used by primary school teachers and pupils. Blandine holds a diplôme d'ingénieur from the Ecole Polytechnique (France), a MS in Nuclear Engineering from UC Berkeley and a Master in Public Administration from the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées (France). She has worked at the French National Safety Authority and with GE Nuclear Energy, and is the co-founder of the non-profit Prométhée. A civil servant for the French department for transportation and infrastructures, she is a PhD candidate at MIT's Engineering Systems Division, where she wishes to investigate the economic impacts of the increased used of biomass for fuel on developing economies. Blandine is a Fondation Carnot Fellow and holds a Presidential fellowship from MIT.