John Murray McCombs

Murray McCombs is President of SunSpuds Global, Inc. (SSG), a technology development company for agro-fuels and food ingredients. He is Partner in Light Energy Technology, P.A. (LET). He is also a Senior Fellow of Organizing for Development—An International Institute (ODII), dedicated in organization science practice.

In the early 1970s, Mr. McCombs completed a Masters of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and became a licensed architect. His professional focus combined architecture with his previous Masters of Urban Planning. Given the severe energy supply shortages of that era, Mr. McCombs' interest became directed toward energy supply as a national security issue. His interest, education and experience led him to focus on the impact of Earth energy use on the environment in the design of buildings, planning of cities and the national energy supply infrastructure. He chose then to dedicate his life's work in energy as it relates to national energy policy, energy technology invention, and development and commercialization of Light energy resources.

Later in that decade, he established an energy technology research farm for plant biomass to produce ethanol fuel and power. He founded a successful company to manufacture and install his invention of thermal radiant systems for hot water heating. He directed his resources and career work experience to study scientific knowledge of the Light spectrum and its function as an energy source. Building on his work about general systems theory under Dr. Peter McCleary at the U. of Penn., he applied whole system principles to establish an understanding of policy about exploitation of energy sources in a global context. The result is his distinction between Light and Earth energy: "Light" energy is a scientific/ technical term identifying the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is cause for sustaining the biosphere engine of the planet. Sustained renewable flows and forms of Light energy resources within the biosphere are wind, rivers, oceans, plants, trees and radiation.

During the 1980s, he was invited to assist with national and international energy policy research and formation for the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, the U.S. Department of Energy, The World Bank, and The World Resources Institute. At the University of Maryland, he piloted new energy and structural courses for architecture Master's students. Over a period of twenty five years, Mr. McCombs returned to his architecture and planning with multi-year assignments on large scale complex projects, notably as top management consultant with Planning Research Corp. for the planning and construction of the new city of Jubail, Saudi Arabia, and as manager for the design and construction of The Baltimore Sun printing and telecommunications complex.

The 1990s and 2000's were primarily devoted to the long-term development of farming and processing technology systems for commercialization of a new agricultural sugar crop for ethanol and power production, called SunSpuds™. His work continues toward eliminating energy scarcity as a cause for conflict and war with his creation of the Light Energy Program, and as Senior Fellow of ODII in the practice of organization science for national and international energy policy formation.

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