Meet the Author: William Kamkwamba

When William Kamkwamba was 14 years old, his native country of Malawi was stricken by a terrible famine. Using his curiosity and ingenuity, he cobbled together a working windmill to provide crucial electricity to his family's farm. In his New York Times bestseller The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Kamkwamba tells the story of how he achieved his dream of bringing electricity, light, and the promise of a better life to his home and community.

Currently a student at Dartmouth College, Kamkwamba was featured in the Wall Street Journal and has appeared on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, ABC's Good Morning America, C-SPAN Book-TV, and NPR. A 2007 TED Global Fellow, he was a student in the inaugural class of the Pan-African Leadership Academy in South Africa. An accomplished speaker, Kamkwamba has addressed audiences at the 2008 World Economic Forum, multiple times at TED, and at schools and universities across the globe.