American Energy Society has selected Vaclav Smil as Energy Writer of the Year 2019, for his book, Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities (MIT Press, 2019).
Vaclav Smil contends that growth is one of two constants at the center of everything: the lives of microorganisms and the capabilities of the human intellect; the fortunes of economies and the life cycles of organisms; the harnessing of wind and water and the development of cities…. Growth is an omnipresent reality of all life and every society. The other universal constant: growth has natural limits. |
About the award
According to Eric Vettel , president of American Energy Society, “The Editorial Board gave its premier award to Vaclav Smil for his sweeping intellectual approach, his courage to confront questions rarely asked, his extraordinary grasp of an enormous subject, his methodical defense of an ambitious thesis with massive amounts of data. And, in recognition of a lifetime of literary achievements.”
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About the author
One of the world’s foremost thinkers on development history and a master of statistical analysis, Vaclav Smil is a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. Over more than 40 years, his books on the environment, population, food and energy have steadily grown in influence. A self-proclaimed “slayer of bullshit,” his non-fiction was influenced by his first 26 years in Czechoslovakia “surrounded by Commie propaganda” during the era of the Soviet bloc.
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In praise of Vaclav Smil
> "There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil." - Bill Gates
> “Vaclav Smil is a brilliant and influential thinker of energy - it’s past, present and future. His books have shaped our understanding on the realities and possibilities of energy transition.” – Jamey Rosenfeld, SVP IHS Markit, co-founder CERA > "Vaclav Smil has quietly shaped how the world thinks about energy." - Science Magazine |
Other awardees
2021: Katharine Hayhoe »
2020: Daniel Yergin » 2018: Nathaniel Rich » 2017: Meghan O'Sullivan » 2016: Mark P. Mills » 2015: Coral Davenport » |
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