Meet our speakers, who are active leaders in the T.I.M.E. (Technology, Information, Media, Entertainment) areas.
Dickson Despommier
Emeritus Professor, Columbia University
Founder, The Vertical Farm Concept (2011)
Dickson Despommier was born in New Orleans in 1940, and grew up in California before moving to the New York area, where he now lives and works. He earned his PhD in microbiology from the University of Notre Dame, and for 27 years, conducted laboratory-based biomedical research with National Institutes of Health-sponsored support at Columbia University. He is now Emeritus Professor at the university.
Despommier has always been interested in the environment and the damage we have caused by the simple act of encroachment. At present, he is engaged in a project called ‘The Vertical Farm’ whose mission is to produce significant amounts of food crops in tall buildings situated in densely populated urban centers. This initiative has grown in acceptance over the last few years to the point of stimulating planners and developers around the world to incorporate them into their vision for the future city.
He has received numerous teaching awards, including the national American Medical Student Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence in 2003. He has published three books, over 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and numerous review articles on a wide variety of subjects. He has lectured on the subject of vertical farming at MIT, Harvard and the Singularity University as well as to various cities around the world, including Chicago, New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles, Beijing, Amman and Seoul, and to the International Monetary Fund, US Department of Agriculture, US Agency for International Development and other federal government agencies.
Despommier has always been interested in the environment and the damage we have caused by the simple act of encroachment. At present, he is engaged in a project called ‘The Vertical Farm’ whose mission is to produce significant amounts of food crops in tall buildings situated in densely populated urban centers. This initiative has grown in acceptance over the last few years to the point of stimulating planners and developers around the world to incorporate them into their vision for the future city.
He has received numerous teaching awards, including the national American Medical Student Golden Apple Award for Teaching Excellence in 2003. He has published three books, over 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers and numerous review articles on a wide variety of subjects. He has lectured on the subject of vertical farming at MIT, Harvard and the Singularity University as well as to various cities around the world, including Chicago, New York City, Seattle, Los Angeles, Beijing, Amman and Seoul, and to the International Monetary Fund, US Department of Agriculture, US Agency for International Development and other federal government agencies.
