Leslie Dewan (born November 27, 1984) is an American nuclear engineer. She was the co-founder and chief executive officer of Transatomic Power. Dewan was a member of the board of

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

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Retrieved 20 March 2016 and was named a Young Global Leader by the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

Education

Dewan is a 2002 graduate of

The Winsor School The Winsor School is a private college-preparatory day school for girls in the Longwood neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was established in 1886 and educates girls in grades 5–12. History Founding In 1886, Mary Pickard Winsor s ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. She received S.B. degrees from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering in 2007. She received her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from MIT in 2013. While at MIT, Dewan was awarded a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship and an MIT Presidential Fellowship.

Entrepreneurship

Dewan co-founded Transatomic Power in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

in 2011 and was the chief executive officer until the corporation ceased operations. Transatomic Power was founded to design and develop a

molten salt reactor A molten-salt reactor (MSR) is a class of nuclear fission reactor in which the primary nuclear reactor coolant and/or the fuel is a mixture of molten salt with a fissile material. Two research MSRs operated in the United States in the mid-20th ...

(

Generation IV reactor Generation IV (Gen IV) reactors are nuclear reactor design technologies that are envisioned as successors of generation III reactors. The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) – an international organization that coordinates the development of ...

) to generate clean and low-cost nuclear power. In December 2012,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

magazine selected Dewan for their

30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists published annually by ''Forbes'' magazine since 2011 consisting of 30 notable people under 30 years old in various industries. The American list consists of 600 people, with 30 selected in each of 20 sect ...

in Energy. In September 2013,

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "''The''" in its name on April 23, 1998, under then pu ...

recognized Dewan as one of “35 Innovators Under 35”. In December 2013,

TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

magazine selected Dewan as one of "30 People Under 30 Changing the World". In 2016, errors were discovered in the company's analysis of its reactor design. A corrected reactor design had substantial technical advances over conventional light water reactors. However, it did not meet commercial requirements for rapid growth of the company. By September 25, 2018, Transatomic had ceased operations and placed its design data in the public domain. Dewan is currently CEO at RadiantNano in Framington, Massachusetts, in partnership with Dr. Matthew Alpert, designing and manufacturing sensors for detecting and imaging radiation. RadiantNano is focused on clean energy, medical diagnostics, and national security. In particular, RadiantNano is developing and deploying technology for preventing the proliferation of nuclear materials via smuggling in shipping containers.

Media appearances

Dewan appeared in the documentary ''

Uranium – Twisting the Dragon's Tail ''Uranium – Twisting the Dragon's Tail'' is a television documentary series about uranium, its history, and its uses. It was produced by Gene Pool Productions for PBS and SBS and premiered on both networks in late July and August 2015. The ...

'', and an episode of ''

Nova A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

'' entitled "The Nuclear Option" in 2017. In 2019, she hosted

National Geographic Partners National Geographic Partners, LLC is a joint venture between the Walt Disney Company (which owns 73% of the company) and the namesake non-profit scientific organization National Geographic Society (which owns 27%). The company oversees all comm ...

' web-based series ''Electric Earth''. She is expected to appear in the forthcoming documentary ''The Limitless Generation''. Dewan gave speeches at TEDx University of Rochester in 2019. and Tedx Boca Raton in January, 2022

References

External links

Transatomic Power
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dewan, Leslie Living people 1984 births American nuclear engineers MIT School of Engineering alumni 21st-century American women engineers 21st-century American engineers Businesspeople from Cambridge, Massachusetts People from Newton, Massachusetts Winsor School alumni