I was offered a place at Stanford University to do postgraduate research into high-energy-density capacitors. But then the Internet came along, and I wanted a piece of the action.
Most of his talks he mentions this. He was doing a PHD to study ultra-capacitors, or at least, was accepted to UPENN with that intention. He left to start zip2. He has also mentioned that a part of the reason he didn't proceed was that his research was very theoretical and it would've been able to find (or disprove) of a method after years pf study. He mentions some of the other breakthroughs on iltra-capacitors having the efficiency of a lead battery, but, while extremely efficient, the prototype used an extremely rare material that only was mined in a few tonnes a year. Thus the solution could never scale.
According to court documents he has never had any association with Stanford university, and, contrary to public statements, among them SEC filings, has no degrees beyond a Bachelor of Science in Economics from PennU.
