Age: 33
Job Title: CEO of G2V Optics
Nothing motivates Ryan Tucker more than seeing the tangible impact of his work. And finding out how things work has been a lifelong pursuit. “I come from a long line of mechanics. For as long as cars have been around, Tucker men have been turning wrenches on them.”
Today, Tucker enjoys the tangible part of innovation, bringing new technologies to places where people can actually use them, with his company, G2V Optics.
Tucker enrolled in the University of Alberta’s engineering physics program, eventually earning a PhD, but success in academia left him feeling disconnected. “People do great work there, foundational work that is essential for society,” Tucker says. “But the distance between academia and where the rubber hits the road to help people was too big for me.”
A few years after grad school, Tucker talked to his friend Michael Taschuk (G2V founder and CTO) about a technology Taschuk had developed that replicates sunlight for lab, industrial and aerospace uses, including vertical farms and materials testing. Today, G2V works with customers all over the world. “The thing we do better than anyone else in the world is replicate sunlight. All of the benefits of sunlight and how they affect things in the world, we can reproduce in a way that brings industrial value.”
There is no denying Tucker’s drive and passion, but he assures that he didn’t do it alone. “I’ve been so lucky to bring together and work with so many exceptional people.”
This article appears in the November 2020 issue of Edify
