David J. C. MacKay
In 2009, David J. C. MacKay took up the post of Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, a role he would hold for five years and that placed his work as a mathematician and physicist at the center of national energy policy.
Born on 22 April 1967 in Stoke-on-Trent, MacKay attended Newcastle-under-Lyme School before going on to Trinity College, Cambridge. A Fulbright Scholarship took him to the California Institute of Technology, rounding out an education that spanned two continents. He returned to Cambridge, where he built his academic career across several departments and disciplines. He held the position of Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, and was also appointed Regius Professor of Engineering in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge — appointments that reflected the range of his work across physics, mathematics, and computer science.
His book Sustainable Energy — Without the Hot Air brought his thinking on energy systems to a broad readership, presenting quantitative analysis of energy supply and consumption in accessible terms. The period of his advisory role at DECC, from 2009 to 2014, overlapped with and drew directly on the arguments developed in that work. Beyond his writing and policy work, MacKay accumulated a number of distinctions: he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, and received the Maxwell Lecture. He was appointed Knight Bachelor, an honour that marked the intersection of his academic and public service contributions.
MacKay died on 14 April 2016 in Cambridge, two weeks before what would have been his forty-ninth birthday. At the time of his death he held the title of Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, a chair that signals recognition at the highest level of the British academic system and that stands as a concrete marker of the position he had reached within his field.
Quotes by David J. C. MacKay
In a climate where people don’t understand the numbers, newspapers, campaigners, companies, and politicians can get away with murder.
We can’t be anti-everything – we need an energy plan that adds up. But there’s a lack of numeracy in the public discussion of energy. Where people do use numbers, they select them to sound big and score points in arguments, rather than to aid thoughtful discussion.
If all the ineffective ideas for solving the energy crisis were laid end to end, they would reach to the moon and back.
We must not let ourselves be swept off our feet in horror at the danger of nuclear power. Nuclear power is not infinitely dangerous. It’s just dangerous, much as coal mines, petrol repositories, fossil-fuel burning and wind turbines are dangerous.
If all the ineffective ideas for solving the energy crisis were laid end to end, they would reach to the moon and back
In a climate where people don't understand the numbers, newspapers, campaigners, companies, and politicians can get away with murder
The bottom line in 2007 is that enrollment costs are going up substantially, drug coverage is declining and the brand name coverage in the doughnut hole is being eliminated... Medicare D is an insurance program, not a benefit. As consumption increases, so too will cost. The changes in 2007 clearly demonstrate the limitations of the program.
Most of physics is about energy, and physicists understand inefficiencies. I wanted to write a book about our energy options in a neutral, human-accessible form.
I was writing a book about sustainable energy, and a friend asked me, 'Well, how much energy do you use at home?' And I was embarrassed. I didn't actually know.