Writing & Work
Published pieces, reports, and professional work.
What Drives Innovation in Heavy Industry?
Disruptive innovation in heavy industry doesn't happen by invention alone. It takes risk-tolerant capital, regulatory clarity, and hands-on technical expertise. Two case studies in nickel processing show what those pillars look like in practice.
May 2026 The Breakthrough InstituteThe Critical Minerals Picture Book
Not all critical minerals are created equal. We go mineral-by-mineral and break down how America's supply chain strategy should look for each.
Apr 2026 The Breakthrough InstituteData Centers Won't Be In Space Anytime Soon
Orbital data centers have a compelling narrative, but the physics, economics, and infrastructure realities make them a non-starter for the foreseeable future.
Feb 2026 The Breakthrough InstituteWhy Fusion Power Tomorrow Needs Industrial Capacity Today
Innovation has geographic inertia: regional hubs for today's technologies are positioned best to birth those of tomorrow. Fusion is no exception... but how should this knowledge inform better fusion and industrial policy?
Feb 2026 The Breakthrough InstituteA Crossroads for Aluminum and Electrified Heavy Industry
Rebuilding competitive aluminum production outside of China will take coordinated investment, allied cooperation, and process knowledge in molten salt electrolysis that could carry over to next-generation industrial technologies.
Jan 2026 The Breakthrough InstituteTaking Advantage of Critical Mineral Stockpiling
Physical stockpiles alone can't fix America's mineral supply vulnerabilities. Real security means building domestic capacity — and a reserve that functions as financial infrastructure, not just a warehouse.
Jul 2025 The Breakthrough InstituteSub-Saharan Africa Can't Afford to Eat on a Carbon Diet
Green fertilizer technologies are too expensive and too slow for a continent facing severe food insecurity. Natural gas isn't perfect, but it's incomparably better than people starving.
Jul 2025 The Breakthrough InstituteA Lifeline for Clean Firm Power
The Senate Finance Committee's reconciliation proposal threads the needle the House couldn't — phasing out support for mature renewables while preserving it for the advanced nuclear, geothermal, and carbon capture technologies that still need it.
Jun 2025 The Breakthrough InstituteSub-Saharan Africa Needs Fossil Fuels to Process Its Critical Minerals
Renewable electricity alone can't build a mineral processing industry. Across cobalt in the DRC, bauxite in Guinea, and graphite in Mozambique, the case for petrochemical investment in Africa's critical mineral value chains rings clear.
Jun 2025 The Breakthrough InstituteSaving Money Without Undercutting Energy Dominance
Republicans' reconciliation bill gets the savings right but the strategy wrong. Aggressive cuts would gut emerging energy sectors when targeted reductions on mature technologies could achieve the same fiscal goals without sacrificing American competitiveness.
May 2025 The Breakthrough InstituteTechnology Policy, Not Emissions Policy
The IRA's problem isn't clean energy subsidies, it's subsidies for mature technologies that don't need them. A reform framework that cuts $421 billion while redirecting support toward the innovations that actually do.
Apr 2025