plasma-physics
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Jerome Paye
Jerome Paye is the CEO of TAU Systems, an Austin-based deep-tech company shrinking mile-long particle accelerators down to the size of a shipping container. A physicist by training and a program-management operator by trade, he spent two decades launching Ford Mustangs, steering Renault's early electric-vehicle work, and running opposed-piston engine programs at Achates Power before joining a startup that wants to accelerate electrons to 10 GeV over 10 centimeters of plasma - and, along the way, replace the EUV light source at the heart of modern chipmaking.
Howard Yuh
Howard Yuh is a plasma physicist turned founder who is trying to break China's grip on magnesium by pulling the metal out of the ocean. As CEO and cofounder of Tidal Metals, the New Jersey deeptech he spun out of his earlier desalination venture GreenBlu, he uses an adsorption temperature-swing vapor pump - a trick borrowed from fusion research - to extract magnesium salt from seawater with only electricity, no mining, and no waste. The company raised $8.5M in seed funding led by DCVC in 2024 and won the World Economic Forum's Sustainable Mining Challenge the same year.
James Dorris
James Dorris is the co-founder and CEO of Odys Aviation, a Long Beach company building long-range, hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft that take off and land like a helicopter but cruise like an airplane. A former fusion physicist who started at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center, he helped build the propulsion and levitation tech at Virgin Hyperloop One before turning to flight. At Odys he is chasing aircraft that can lift off from a helipad, fly up to 1,000 miles on a hybrid system, and cut regional travel emissions sharply while serving defense, logistics, and passenger markets.