Sherry Lassiter dreams of a world in which almost anyone anywhere can make almost anything. Through the FAB Lab network – 1,200 labs in 100 countries – she is seeing that dream become reality.
The Industrial Revolution changed the world, bringing with it manufacturing, jobs, education and consumerism. It also brought us industry on a massive scale as well as gross inequities in terms of the economy and quality of life and vast environmental problems. Now, the digital revolution is rapidly advancing, and forward thinkers such as Sherry Lassiter, founding partner and director of the Fab Foundation, envision developments that can help us turn the trajectory towards a more equitable and sustainable world.
Age: 63 FAB years!
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States.
Family: Husband, a video editor, and a fat cat.
Education: Master’s in education, Harvard University.
Hobbies: Photography, movies, biking and making toys.
“The Fab Lab network is considered by many the biggest, most coherent network of makers in the world, due to our relationship with MIT [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and our focus on education,” Lassiter says. “We’ve fostered the growth of a network of about 1,200 labs in 100 countries. We’re about making with digital fabrication and about impacts you can make through both new economic opportunities and strong social networks leveraging these tools.” And thanks to the digital-fabrication tools and knowledge that Fab Labs are bringing to the public, anyone can make almost anything almost anywhere in the world.
