Hugo Van Vuuren
Hugo Van Vuuren helped launch The Laboratory at Harvard, a new platform for idea experimentation in the arts and sciences. Born and raised in South Africa, his endeavors and research focus on Design with Africa and the intersection between technology, design and innovation. Van Vuuren cofounded Lebone, a social enterprise working on off-grid technologies and he works with Le Laboratoire, an experimental art and design center in Paris.
A Fellow at The Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Van Vuuren was selected as a 2009 PopTech Social Innovation Fellow, a TED2010 Fellow, and a 2011 Student Fellow at The Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He and his co-founders won the 2009 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award for their dirt-powered battery design.