Congratulations to the energy sector finalists for the 2018 Forbes 30 Under 30. This is the seventh installment of the project. Each year we highlight a group of upstarts, judged by our sources and judges, to be among the most promising individuals working across the broad field of anything even tangentially “energy” related.

Indeed, none of these stars are going to allow any preconceived notions to weigh down their ambition. Take Ian Hamilton, 25, CEO of Atlas Energy Systems, where he’s working to commercialize long-lasting batteries powered by the residual energy of radioactive isotopes recovered from spent nuclear fuel. Might sound scary to anyone old enough to remember Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. “I am not subject to the traditional ways of thinking about nuclear power like that of previous generations,” says Hamilton, who is working with scientists at Argonne National Lab.