Meet Representative Thomas Massie: A Constitutional Conservative With an MIT Pedigree
by Jeffrey Mervis on 21 November 2012
The newest member of the U.S. House of Representatives was the first recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for inventiveness. The solar panels on his home in rural Kentucky generate all the electricity his family needs to live on and work a 1200-acre cattle farm. And he's awaiting delivery of a Tesla electric car.
But Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) is no latte-sipping tree-hugger. He doesn't think that the scientific evidence for climate change is compelling. He says that any discussion of preserving government support for academic research must wait until after the country's politicians get serious about eliminating the $1 trillion annual federal deficit and whittling down the nation's $16 trillion debt. And he admits that the libertarians who backed his candidacy for an open seat, including former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and his son, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), would probably be uncomfortable with the fact that he receives a check every year from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for royalties from licensing a patent based on work for his undergraduate thesis. (He later earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering before starting his own company, SensAble Devices, which was eventually renamed SensAble Technologies.)
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