Alex Lightman

Alex Lightman (born December 5, 1961) is an author, entrepreneur, and futurist, who was a prominent advocate of the adoption of IPv6, served as CTO of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization, and has authored several books on technology and society.
Education
He is a Civil and Environmental Engineering graduate of MIT ('83) and attended graduate school at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he studied negotiation with Jim Sebenius at the time he was advising the then-start up Blackstone Group, and comparative analysis of public policy in developing countries. Lightman's thesis at Harvard, "The US vs. UN: Cases for Space Authority", argued that the United Nations is unable to enforce decent standards and thus the United States government should develop and maintain hegemony in outer space.
==Humanity+==
Alex Lightman served briefly as Executive Director of , and writes extensively for . He chaired and organized the first two H+ Summits, in Irvine, California in December 2009, and at the Harvard Science Center, Harvard University in June 2010, which had over 400 attendees and 60 speakers. Hosting a transhumanist event at Harvard University was a milestone in the mainstream acceptance of Transhumanism.
Books
Brave New Unwired World
Lightman is the author of the first book on 4G wireless, 'Brave New Unwired World: The Digital Big Bang and the Infinite Internet', published by John Wiley and has published over 100 articles for technology, business, and political publications including Red Herring, Chief Executive, and Internet World.
Reconciliation: 78 Reasons to End to US Embargo of Cuba
In October 2010, on the fiftieth anniversary of the US embargo of Cuba, Lightman published 'Reconciliation: 78 Reasons to End to US Embargo of Cuba'
IPv6
Alex Lightman is a member of the board of directors of Inova Technology, which purchased a controlling interest in Innofone.com, the first public company focused exclusively on developing applications for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Lightman is the CEO of Innofone, which had over sixty high technology and government customers, including the US government, NATO, Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Nokia, ATT, and NTT. Lightman also organized the Coalition Summit for IPv6 and helped convince the US Department of Defense to improve the security of its networks and upgrade to IPv6. He was also chairman of the North American IPv6 Global Summit.
Government Service
Lightman worked for US Senator Paul E. Tsongas (D-MA) and reporting directly to the Estimator of the Capitol and indirectly to the Architect of the Capitol in 1982, including service on several presidential campaigns and a state party in California, and recently including consulting and sponsored speeches to the ministry-equivalents in the US, China, Japan, Taiwan, Philippines, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Singapore. The US Dept. of Commerce and Dept. of State sponsored a tour of six Asian capitals that included receptions in Lightman's honor in US embassies in summer 2006.
Business
He is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and a director of Fortune Nest Corporation, a multinational corporation with offices in Beijing, China, Manama, Bahrain, and Santa Monica, California. One of his projects is the creation of a Bahrain Silicon Valley, a center for high technology for the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, as presented during the Bahrain World Economic Summit.
He was also head of Charmed Technology, a Californian company specialising in wearable technology.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
In November 2010, Alex Lightman was appointed the Director of Technology and Innovation for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, with a clearly defined statement of purpose. With Laurens De Groot, Lightman established the Sea Shepherd Ideas and Innovation Center, which garnered over 1,000 fans within 48 hours, and in its first month generated hundreds of pages of ideas for upgrading Sea Shepherd’s three ships into platforms for innovation.
Futurism
Lightman is interested in using the oceans and space as the common heritage of humanity and in civilization-level advancements. Lightman spoke to United Nations delegates on the subject of Space Solar Power (for the developing world) at the UNISPACE III conference. He has served on the boards of directors or trustees for space law and space development organizations. He has published and spoken about the case for US trusteeship of the moon and space, and debated future issues before large live audiences, such as "who owns Mars" with both the founder of the Mars Society and a United Nations spokesperson. He has also been cited as an expert on topics such as trans-humanism and the changing relationship between online and offline worlds.
Views On Energy
Lightman is also a vocal advocate against the fossil fuel industry, and said in an interview on Earth Day that "Solar has already won, it's just a matter of getting the news out... The future, in which 100% of the world's electricity comes from solar is already here, it's just not evenly distributed". He has suggested that fossil fuel use could be complete eliminated by 2030.
Awards
On Oct. 21, 2010, Lightman received the first Economist Reader’s Award for “the innovation most likely to radically impact the world over the next decade 2010 to 2020” at the London Science Museum. The award was on behalf of his role in the innovation of 4G networks, and was the result of a world-wide vote of people in 200 countries over a five-month period, mediated by a panel of 32 judges assembled by The Economist.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu