nuclear-fusion
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Kelly Smith
Kelly Smith is the founder and CEO of Prenda, a Mesa, Arizona education company that helps ordinary adults run microschools - small groups of 5 to 10 kids who take ownership of their own learning. An MIT-trained nuclear fusion engineer who once sold a clean-energy software business, Smith stumbled into education by volunteering at a library code club, watching kids light up when they wanted to learn. In January 2018 he started a microschool around his kitchen table with his son and six neighborhood kids. Since then Prenda has helped more than 1,000 adults launch microschools and nearly 10,000 K-8 students learn to lead their own education.
Acceleron Fusion, Inc.
Acceleron Fusion is a Cambridge, Massachusetts deep-tech company reviving muon-catalyzed fusion, a phenomenon first observed in the 1950s, as a path to abundant clean energy. Instead of confining a 100-million-degree plasma, Acceleron fires a beam of muons - subatomic particles roughly 200 times heavier than electrons - at highly compressed deuterium-tritium fuel, triggering fusion at temperatures closer to 500-1,000 C. Founded in 2023 by NK Labs veterans Ara Knaian and Seth Newburg and backed by a $24M Series A from Lowercarbon Capital and Collaborative Fund, the company is building two core technologies: a high-efficiency muon source and a high-density fusion cell, with the goal of a fusion power plant that beats natural gas on cost.