Carl is a software engineer/developer and a lifelong environmental activist. He grew up not far from Chicago, the “greenest” city in the U.S. (90% of Chicago’s electricity is generated from carbon-free nuclear energy). As a teenager, he canvassed door to door on the first Earth Day, warning neighbors of the perils of air and water pollution.

Spending his formative years in proximity to the birthplace of the Manhattan Project, Argonne National Laboratory, Fermi National Laboratory (FERMILAB) and other celebrated institutions made an impression on him early in life. “Nuclear plants are like wallpaper in Illinois – they don’t stand out. They don’t smoke, they don’t melt down, they just generate clean electricity 24/7/365,” he says. “When I came to California to attend USC in 1975, I was amazed so many Californians were terrified of them. But I realized their fear was based on a lack of familiarity – and in terms of environmental activism, education would be my focus.”

Carl has also been an activist for electric transportation. In 2007 he converted a Ford Aspire to electric power, and aided Nissan Motors in testing and development of the Nissan Leaf EV. “Electric vehicles powered by nuclear electricity generate no carbon emissions at all. With the challenge of climate change before us, that should be our goal.”