Perkins Coie Lunch Series: 2024-2025

Lisa Stiffler, Journalist, GeekWire

Lisa Stiffler covers nonprofits, companies and researchers who are applying technology to environmental, energy, health, transit, education and other societal challenges.

Lisa is from the Northwest and a University of Washington alumna twice over, with a background in cell biology that was jettisoned for the excitement and nearly instant gratification of journalism.

Her first real media gig was at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer where for 10 years she primarily covered environmental issues. More recently Lisa worked as a freelancer for the Seattle Times covering the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Other recent endeavors include writing and editing for Seattle’s Child parenting magazine, research for Sightline Institute, and reporting for NPR, MSNBC, Smithsonian Magazine and local news websites.

Dr. Mike Dunne, Professor of Photon Science, Stanford University

Mike Dunne is an expert in the design, construction and operation of a wide range of large-scale research facilities and their associated science and technology programs.

He is the Director of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS), an internationally leading research facility, operated by Stanford University on behalf of the US Department of Energy, open to users from around the world. He is an Associate Laboratory Director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and a full Professor of Photon Science at Stanford University.

From 2010-2014, Mike was the Director for Laser Fusion Energy at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). His role was to ensure full advantage is taken of the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a $3.5 billion investment designed to demonstrate net fusion energy production. At LLNL, Mike also held the role of Program Director for high average power laser development, initiating a number of projects including the High Average power Petawatt Laser System (HAPLS), for the newly constructed ELI-Beamlines laser facility near Prague.

Dr. Matthew C. Levy, Founder and General Partner, AE Blue Capital

Matthew Chase Levy is founder and general partner of AE Blue Capital. He is the first American physicist to be named a Newton Fellow of The Royal Society, an institution which was given Royal Charter in 1662 by King Charles II. The Royal Society is “a fellowship of many of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence.” As a Newton Fellow, Matthew’s research involved devising new ways to harness the immensely strong electromagnetic fields comprising high power laser light to test aspects of the nonlinear quantum vacuum in the laboratory. As a Lawrence Scholar in the physics division of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Matthew created fusion theories, helping lay the foundation for today’s commercial laser fusion systems. He founded and led Noble Artificial Intelligence, a science start-up based in San Francisco. With his leadership, Noble flourished from idea to robust organization, assembling a Microsoft agreement and accepting significant investments from M12, Microsoft’s Venture Capital Fund, to Chevron Technology Ventures, Stanford’s endowment, and others. Matthew has invested in numerous startups including Brex, H2O.ai, and Rippling. An alumnus of Rice, UCLA, and Wolfson College, Oxford, England, Matthew brings scientific expertise, entrepreneurial capability, and deep-seated ancient values to advanced energy investing.

Shaun Walsh, Chief Marketing Officer, Peak Nano

Shaun is a senior marketing leader with extensive experience in cloud, security, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud infrastructure, high performance networking, software defined services, enterprise SaaS platforms and storage management.

Shaun is responsible for overseeing global marketing strategy and execution at Peak Nano, the leading provider of AI-driven materials science solutions for advanced optics and energy management. Peak’s solutions support a range of industries, including military, medical, EV, and power storage applications.