Sir David MacKay obituary

Cambridge physicist and government scientific adviser with a rational approach to the climate and energy debate

Sir David MacKay, who has died of cancer aged 48, was a true polymath, a rare breed in today's world, where the frontiers of scientific knowledge are increasingly remote and complex. It is a testament to David's intellectual brilliance that he was able to contribute to advancing more than one of these frontiers during his short career.

David latterly achieved cult status among climate and energy aficionados following the publication of Sustainable Energy: Without the Hot Air (2008), initially self-published using 10,000 of David's own money and offered - as were all his works - simultaneously free for download on his website. Described as a "tour de force" by the Economist magazine and lauded by Bill Gates as "one of the best books on energy that has been written", within two years it had sold 40,000 copies and been downloaded nearly half a million times.

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