Geek of the Week: This chemist and his team are hacking molecules for cheaper energy

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Anyone who has shopped for a ring knows that platinum doesn’t come cheap. Existing fuel cells rely on this precious metal as the catalyst to convert hydrogen into electricity, increasing the cost of fuel cells and limiting their potential reach as a source of energy. But what if the catalyst could be a cheaper metal,… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Splunk’s Brad Lovering on big data and ‘disruptive transitions’

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Brad Lovering is a veteran of the tech industry in the Seattle region — having worked at Microsoft for more than two decades, rising through the company to join the elite ranks of Microsoft technical fellows. He was known for his work on products including Biztalk Server, .NET, Visual Studio, Windows Communication Foundation and Visual Basic, among other… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Heidi Yu, startup entrepreneur and ‘chic geek’ accessory designer

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Heidi Yu grew up in Chengdu, China, and has been in the Seattle region for seven years. A graduate of the Seattle University MBA program, she honed her startup skills in business plan competitions, including a winning plan for incorporating clean energy and road construction projects. After working as a business development manager for an… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Dr. Rebecca Gardner is reprogramming blood cells to kill cancer

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Dr. Rebecca Gardner and her colleagues at Seattle Children’s Research Institute are altering the body’s infection-fighting blood cells to attack cancer in the same way those cells fight viruses. The researchers take a patient’s blood, reprogram the T-cells, and infuse the blood back into the body to find and destroy cancer. How’s that for a… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Tech industry vet Ramez Naam debuts first sci-fi novel

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Ramez Naam is a tech industry veteran who has also experienced success as a non-fiction writer. He worked at Microsoft for 13 years and won the 2005 HG Wells Award for his non-fiction book, “More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement.” This week the Seattle resident is building on that experience — expanding into… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Microsoft creative director Jeff Faulkner

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Jeff Faulkner is a Microsoft creative director who guides branding and user experiences for Microsoft’s entertainment division, with roots in the Xbox team. Now a Seattle resident, he’s a veteran designer with roots at agencies in Portland, working on a variety of high-profile projects. He’s speaking tonight in Portland about the intersection of technology and… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Microsoft’s new U.S. education leader makes an impact in Kenya

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Microsoft this morning named Margo Day as its new vice president of U.S. education, leading the team that works with schools and colleges in the United States on a variety of educational and technology initiatives. A veteran sales and marketing executive, Day has been at Microsoft since 2001. But her recent experience extends well beyond… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Software engineer Jesse Johnston is making medicine smarter

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Technology is playing a larger role in health care every day, but what if the pills themselves were smart, with embedded chips that work in conjunction with a smartphone app? That’s exactly what software engineer Jesse Johnston is working on in his role as a software engineer at Seattle-based Stratos Product Development. Meet our new… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Maria Zhang’s big-data startup shows you what’s ‘Alike’

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Maria Zhang, a software engineer and startup founder who has worked at companies including Microsoft and Zillow, knows a thing or two about gleaning useful information from huge volumes of data. She and her team are using that approach to help people find places to go, and things to buy. Their new app, Alike, debuted… Read More…