Space Travel, Heavy Ions, Electric Cars ft. Dimosthenis Katsis
Episode 209

Space Travel, Heavy Ions, Electric Cars ft. Dimosthenis Katsis

Space Travel, Heavy Ions, Electric Cars ft. Dimosthenis Katsis

In Other Words

An Army Research Lab project using radioactive tritium to make copper-doped zinc-sulphide tubes glow green, coupled to cylindrical solar cells, creating tiny undetectable 20-year ’tritium batteries’ for long-life field sensors.

Key Takeaways

  • Director of Power Electronics at PowerAmerica, an ~89-member US/Europe/Asia consortium sharing wide-bandgap semiconductor (SiC, GaN) technology for electrification of transport, aerospace and medicine.
  • Material science is what makes power electronics commercially viable, encapsulants that prevent arcing, corona and dendrite bridges in 800 V EV battery packs matter as much as the chips.
  • Compact/mobile accelerator and wide-bandgap tech could move capabilities (cancer therapy, sensing) to places that can’t currently afford or import them.
  • Career: Virginia Tech solar-car team, GE, PhD, Blue Origin (space-radiation testing; lunar-rock solar cells), consulting on hybrid-electric aircraft.
  • Three wishes: fund basic research with forward/long-term thinking that also directs climate and technology money to the people least able to afford the fixes; rebuild scientist–public trust.