Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of forty books, including New York Times bestseller How the World Really Works and Energy and Civilization, published by the MIT Press. In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013 Bill Gates wrote on his website that "there is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil.

瓦茲拉夫·史密爾（Vaclav Smil）是曼尼托巴大學的榮譽特聘教授。他是四十本書的作者，包括《紐約時報》暢銷書《世界真相是什麼》（How the World Really Works）和《能源與文明》（Energy and Civilization），由麻省理工學院出版社出版。2010年，他被《外交政策》雜誌評選為全球百大思想家之一。2013年，比爾·蓋茲在他的網站上寫道：「沒有其他作者的書籍我比瓦茲拉夫·史密爾更期待。」