JWM - Volume 1, Issue 1 - (Page 92)

MY PASSION Saul Grifﬁth The Tools He Carries With Him The inventor’s passion comes from a very simple place. BY E R I C W Y B E N G A aul Grifﬁth’s most prized possessions are the wrenches and calipers handmade by his grandfather, a railroad engineer. “There’s something about the handcrafting of these century-old tools that is just gorgeous,” he says. Ask this inventor and 2007 MacArthur “genius” grant recipient what he does, and he tends to summarize his eclectic output with the word “hardware.” It’s a telling biographical detail, coming from a man who has thought up and made some pretty useful things. In 2006, Grifﬁth developed an ingenious way to make low-cost eyeglasses for the estimated one billion people worldwide who can’t afford them. He invented a technique that employs a liquid resin and universal parts to produce varying prescriptions on demand. Since then, he has turned his restless creativity toward a kaleidoscope of projects, from kites that act as high-altitude wind turbines, and his robotic model elephants (above) to putting biology in the service of more environmentally-benign manufacturing processes. Grifﬁth asked, “How do I raise my quality of life while using substantially less energy?“ and created a short-range form of urban transportation (the bike at left). He’s created “computational manufacturing,” which uses algorithms to embed design information in the components that make everything from running shoes to toothbrushes. In an age that accords software developers and Internet entrepreneurs the fortune and fame once heaped on ﬁgures like Thomas Edison, Grifﬁth remains dedicated to designing and constructing tangible objects. For this, he blames his artist mother, who, he says, “doomed me to being interested in this unproﬁtable area—she should have told me about software.” In addition to the touchstone of his grandfather’s tools, it was growing up among ﬁve-ton lithograph presses and other “beautiful machines” his mother used to make prints that, he says, “imprinted pretty early on that making things was cool.” At the root of his pursuits is a concern that ties his varied endeavors together. “My driving motivation,” he says, “is to try and make a livable future for my son.” For Grifﬁth, that means ﬁnding ways to tackle the pressing environmental challenges of our day, particularly global climate change. [ My driving motivation is to try and make a livable future for my son. J WM MAGAZINE 92 J W M A R R I O T T. C O M GRIFFITH: © 2011 ED ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.JWMARRIOTT.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JWM - Volume 1, Issue 1

JWM - Volume 1, Issue 1
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
JW Story
Distinctive Products, People, Ideas & Style
The Perfect Cocktail
Crystal Clear
Secrets of a Great Collector
The Portal
Quiet Space
Emerging Tribes
Time Travel
The Locavore Chef
Turned Around
JW Experience
My Passion

JWM - Volume 1, Issue 1