Ben Glass: Helping to Repair the World, One Wind-Turbine Balloon at a Time

Ben Glass, 34, is the co-founder, CEO and CTO of Altaeros Energies, a Boston-based, cutting-edge company developing ways to generate clean, sustainable energy and bring the Internet to people without connectivity. The premier project of Altaeros is the BAT, a wind turbine housed in a huge, doughnut-shaped, helium-filled balloon. The company is also developing The Super Tower, a helium-filled blimp that can beam the Internet to a range of communities below. Glass holds BS and MS degrees in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from MIT.
 
Quote: “I’m very much the product of both my parents. When my mom was in her 20’s, she was a park ranger; she’s been an environmentalist her whole life. I assume that was the genesis of my interest in the environment and sustainability. My dad was a mechanical engineer and a pilot in the Israeli Air Force. I started my engineering curriculum when I was about three.”
 
Sources: Altaeros.com, YouTube/Unreasonable Fireside Chat
 
Ben Glass appears in the following two short videos:
 
Watch “Floating Wind Turbine Takes to the Sky” [1:41] on BBC.com via youtTube (published online in 2015). >>
 
Watch “Altaeros Super Tower” [2:45] on YouTube (published online in 2018). >>
 
Photo: newspeppermint.com