Contributor

Patrick Takahashi

Director Emeritus, Hawaii Natural Energy Institute

Professor Takahashi was born and grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, is Director Emeritus with the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute of the University of Hawaii, former professor of engineering and the author of two SIMPLE SOLUTION:

for Planet Earth
for Humanity

books, as listed in the May 18, 2008 issue of the Honolulu Advertiser:

He was for 15 years director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute and co-founder of the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research, where his team initiated projects in open cycle OTEC, which will power the Blue Revolution (Chapter 4 of Book 1), and methanol from the gasification and catalysis of biomass (Chapter 2 of Book 1), which provides a more sensible biofuel option than ethanol from food.

Nearly three decades ago he helped draft original bills in the U.S. Senate on hydrogen, wind power, ocean thermal energy conversion and related sustainable resource topics. The hydrogen bill established the guidelines for the national hydrogen and fuel cell program, and is reported in Chapter 3 of Book 1. He managed the Hard Minerals Act (which featured strategic minerals and marine methane hydrates from the seabed).

Professor Takahashi worked for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on laser fusion (Chapter 1 of Book 1) and sustainable resources, and for the NASA Ames Research Center on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (Chapter 4 of Book 2).

He was awarded the Bechtel Energy Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Spark Matsunaga Memorial Award by the National Hydrogen Association and Ocean Pioneer Award by the Ocean Energy Council. Details on the rest of his life can be found on the 10May08 edition of his blog.