Derek Shannon, MS

Derek Shannon, MS is Director of Business Development at Lawrenceville Plasma Physics.
 
Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. is a high-tech research and development corporation specializing in applications of plasma physics, including fusion power and high-power X-ray sources.
 
Their lead project is the development of a clean-energy fusion generator using a dense plasma focus (DPF) fusion reactor and proton-boron (pB11) fuel, an approach they call “Focus Fusion”. This work, which was initially funded by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and now investor-funded, is aimed at producing an extremely economical, compact, environmentally safe and virtually unlimited source of energy that would be at least ten times cheaper than any existing energy source. They have already achieved major experimental milestones, including the achievement of plasma confinement at energies equivalent to two billion degrees, high enough to fuse hydrogen and boron. They are carrying out new experiments with their “Focus Fusion-1” experimental reactor in Middlesex, NJ.
 
Derek is a business development consultant and technologist with a scientific mindset and proven experience in taking small research companies to the next level. He focuses on technological development efforts with breakthrough positive social and environmental potential, including such areas as clean energy and transit, artificial intelligence software, aerospace technology, materials science, and communication of scientific concepts to the general public.
 
His specialties include: venture capital evaluation and strategy, nonprofit creation and operations, government grants and collaborations, legislation (lobbying and authorship), corporate sponsorships, and team-building and coordination.
 
Derek earned his BS in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology in 2002. He earned his MS in Geobiology and Astrobiology at the University of Southern California in 2006 with the thesis Elemental Analysis as a First Step Towards “Following the Nitrogen” on Mars. He earned his Technology Commercialization Certificate at the University of Southern California – Marshall School of Business in 2006.
 
Visit his Facebook page. Follow his Twitter feed. Read his LinkedIn profile and his Google profile.