Cohort 2023
NATHAN GOOD
Project: RareTerra—Developing a one-step, acid-free microbial process to recover and separate REE using complex and waste sources.
Bio: Nathan Good is the CTO of RareTerra, which he co-founded with N. Cecilia Martinez-Gomez, an assistant professor at UC Berkeley. Good is a microbial physiologist with a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Washington. As a project scientist and Bakar Innovation Fellow in the Martinez-Gomez lab at UC Berkeley, he developed a bio-platform for rare earth element (REE) recovery and separation with support from ARPA-E. He ultimately aims to circularize the U.S. REE economy.
WILLIAM LIBERTI
Project: Morphosis—Developing wearable neurotech for real-time authentication and control of devices/technology.
Bio: William Liberti is the founder and CEO of Morphosis, a company developing cutting-edge wearable neural interfaces. His interests lie at the intersection of systems neuroscience and technology development. He earned his Ph.D. at Boston University, where he pioneered highly miniaturized, minimally invasive techniques to monitor neural activity at single-cell resolution over extended periods. His postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley focused on brain-machine interfaces, optics, and the stability of neural coding.
MICHELLE LU
Project: Novel Farms—On a mission to produce cultivated meat cuts that match traditional meat in quality and affordability.
Bio: Michelle Lu is co-founder and chief science officer of Novel Farms, Inc. Previously, she was a postdoctoral scholar and associate project scientist at UC Berkeley in the lab of David Drubin. Lu earned her Ph.D. in biology at the University of Oregon in the lab of Ken Prehoda. She holds a B.A. in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley.
PATRICIA MCNEIL
Project: Westwood Aerogel—Delivers unparalleled performance and cost-effectiveness for all insulation needs.
Bio: Patricia McNeil is a materials science and engineering Ph.D. candidate at UCLA, where she also earned her B.S. She spearheaded the development of ambient drying for aerogels, which greatly improves the scalability of these materials. McNeil is a trainee in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems program, through which she obtained a “Leaders in Sustainability” certification.
JULIAN REES
Project: HOPO Therapeutics—Developing safe, effective, and orally available treatments for heavy metal poisoning.
Bio: Julian Rees is CEO and co-founder of HOPO Therapeutics. As a bioinorganic and radiochemist, his expertise is centered on the behavior of metal ions in biological systems, and he is working to create safe and effective treatments for heavy metal toxicity. Rees received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington, and he has held research fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and UC Berkeley.
PALAK JAIN
Project: Vellex Computing—Accelerating computing for the future electric grid.
Bio: Palak Jain is the co-founder and CEO of Vellex Computing. As a senior research associate at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, she conducted foundational research in computing and grid technologies that led to the formation of Vellex Computing. She received her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the National University of Singapore, where she was part of the Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore program.
DREW LILLEY
Project: Calion Technologies—Eliminating the need for refrigerants using its new liquid and salt-based cooling and heat-pumping technology.
Bio: Drew Lilley is the founder and CEO of Calion Technologies. He is working to commercialize his doctoral research on ionocaloric heating and cooling for next-generation, zero-global-warming-potential refrigeration, and heat pumping technologies. Lilley is a thermal scientist with core expertise in thermal transport and thermodynamics. He earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from UC Berkeley in 2023.
NIEVES MARTINEZ MARSHALL
Project: Novel Farms—On a mission to produce cultivated meat cuts that match traditional meat in quality and affordability.
Bio: Nieves Martinez Marshall is co-founder and CEO at Novel Farms. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher in Jeremy Thorner’s lab at UC Berkeley. She received her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the Humboldt University of Berlin and, before that, completed her master’s thesis as a research scientist at Max Delbrueck Center, also in Germany. She earned an M.S. in biochemistry and a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Zaragoza in Spain.
JARED O'LEARY
Project: SirenOpt—Real-time sensing and software platform that improves the manufacturing performance and yield of batteries, solar cells, and carbon conversion technologies.
Bio: Jared O'Leary is the co-founder and CEO of SirenOpt. O’Leary earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley, where he investigated learning-based methods to characterize, model, and control advanced materials manufacturing processes. He co-founded SirenOpt to commercialize technology he helped develop during his doctoral work. Previously, O’Leary worked as an engineer and team lead at Theranos and earned a B.S. with honors and distinction in chemical engineering at Stanford.
JYOTI TANEJA
Project: Varada Agriculture—High-performing, targeted biological products to control agricultural pests in a way that’s sustainable and safe for the environment.
Bio: Jyoti Taneja is the founder of Varada Agriculture Inc. As a project scientist at UC Berkeley, she developed an RNAi fungicide for powdery mildew control in grapevines. Before that, Taneja completed a Ph.D. in life sciences at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research in New Delhi, and master’s and undergraduate degrees in biology and biotechnology at Chaudhary Charan Singh University in India. She has 15+ years of research experience with plant pathogens.
Cohort 2022
BILEN AKUZUM
Project: Aepnus Technology—Electrifying critical mineral refinement
Bio: Bilen Akuzum is the co-founder and CTO of Aepnus Technology. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the UC Berkeley Water Center. Akuzum's interdisciplinary academic path exposed him to a core foundation in metallurgy which expanded into elements of mechanical engineering, carbon materials, electrochemistry, and rheology as he pursued his Ph.D. at Drexel University. Akuzum is passionate about applying recent breakthroughs in electrochemical research to century-old problems in order to help decarbonize the manufacturing of critical materials.
BEHTASH BEHIN-AEIN
Project: Ludwig Computing—Building a next-generation probabilistic computer
Bio: Behtash Behin-Aein received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Purdue University. His spintronics research was one of the rare theoretical publications in Nature Nanotechnology. Later, at GlobalFoundries, Behin-Aein led the development of device and compact models for STT-MRAM chips from concept to manufacturing 40Mb arrays. The decade-long pursuit of his passion, probabilistic computing, has led him to co-found a startup to actualize a new computing platform.
LUKAS HACKL
Project: Aepnus Technology—Electrifying critical mineral refinement
Bio: Lukas Hackl is the co-founder and CEO of Aepnus Technology, a company focused on the carbon-neutral production of commodity chemicals. Aepnus' advanced electrolysis process evolved out of Hackl’s Ph.D. research on electrochemical water desalination that he carried out at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Prior to that work, he received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from ETH Zurich. Hackl is deeply passionate about climate change mitigation coupled with entrepreneurship.
GJ IA O'
Project: Tyfast—Ultralong cycle life and ultrafast charging batteries to electrify high duty-cycle, mobile platforms
Bio: GJ la O’ is co-founder and chief executive officer of Tyfast. Before Tyfast, he spent a decade leading technology development and commercialization of grid-scale energy storage at Primus Power where he helped raise $100M in venture capital. At Tyfast, la O' leads product, market, and funding roadmaps. He has published over twenty articles and has been issued 23 patents. He is a material scientist and earned his bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
DANIELLE UCHIMURA PASCOLI
Project: VERDE Nanomaterials—Simple and scalable process for nanocellulose production from residues and waste
Bio: Danielle Pascoli completed her Ph.D. at the University of Washington (UW) where she built expertise in biomass conversion to biofuels and biomaterials with a focus on process development and sustainability. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemical engineering from the University of São Paulo in Brazil and a master’s degree from UW. VERDE Nanomaterials is a result of her doctoral research in which she developed a cost-effective process to manufacture nanocellulose using agricultural wastes.
DANIEL SUN
Project: Sunchem—Developing nanofilters for selective metal capture
Bio: Daniel T. Sun is a San Francisco Bay Area native and the founder of Sunchem. He received his B.S. in chemistry at Loyola Marymount University in 2013 and his Ph.D. in chemistry and chemical engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne in 2020. His objective is to revolutionize how critical metals are purified while also providing clean drinking water using Nano Filters.
MATTHEW ANDERSON
Project: Ọsọ Semiconductor—Ultra-low power and low-cost chips to supercharge the high-performance antennas of the future
Bio: Matthew G. Anderson is founder and CEO of Ọsọ Semiconductor, an innovative fabless semiconductor company selling ultralow-power, low-cost, performance microchips to supercharge the antennas of the future. Previously, he was an electrical engineering and computer science Ph.D. student at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in low-power wireless microchip design. Anderson has more than six years of industry experience at Apple and other tech companies as well as a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and physics.
KATHERINE FRENCH
Project: BluumBio—Developing next-generation bioremediation technologies to degrade toxic chemicals in the environment
Bio: Katherine French is the founder and CEO of BluumBio. She is passionate about developing new solutions to clean up the environment and bringing together multiple disciplines, from ecology to synthetic biology, to achieve this goal. She completed her bachelor’s at Boston University, her master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Oxford, as well as two postdocs at UC Berkeley and the Joint Bioenergy Institute.
JAN KAISER
Project: Ludwig Computing—Building a next-generation probabilistic computer
Bio: Jan Kaiser is a co-founder of Ludwig Computing. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering as a Ross fellow in Supriyo Datta’s lab at Purdue University. His research focused on spintronic devices and probabilistic computing systems. He is passionate about novel physics-inspired computing approaches. Kaiser earned bachelor's and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany.
HAODONG LIU
Project: Tyfast—Ultralong cycle life and ultrafast charging batteries to electrify high duty-cycle, mobile platforms
Bio: Haodong Liu is co-founder and chief technology officer of Tyfast. Before Tyfast, he was a project scientist at UC San Diego, where he earned his Ph.D. in material science. He is an expert in a variety of the electrochemical systems and in the design, synthesis, processing, and characterization of advanced electrode materials for Li-ion batteries and novel electrolytes for Li-metal batteries. He has also built a pilot line for fabricating 2 Ah pouch type Li-ion batteries. Liu has published more than 80 papers and has 5 patents.
SARAH PLACELLA
Project: Root Applied Sciences—Automated airborne pathogen monitoring for agriculture
Bio: Sarah Placella founded Root Applied Sciences after realizing that farmers struggle to get decision-critical information for pathogen management. She applies techniques she learned as a scientist and researcher to provide actionable insights to growers. Placella worked at startups in biotech and agtech before starting Root. She has a bachelor's degree in earth and planetary sciences from Johns Hopkins University, a Ph.D. in soil microbial ecology from UC Berkeley, and postdoctoral experience at Michigan State and INRAE, a national research institute in France.