Introducing Cohort 2024
Activate’s 62 new fellows are driving meaningful change toward a sustainable and equitable society
We are thrilled to announce our newest class of Activate Fellows, Cohort 2024! With 62 fellows and 50 companies, Cohort 2024 is our largest yet. Selected from over 1,000 applicants, this new class of fellows is pioneering some of today’s most promising innovations across a range of critical sectors, including energy, transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, and national security. During the two-year Activate Fellowship, our new fellows will turn their breakthroughs into businesses and transform into high-impact science entrepreneurs.
“People, not ideas alone, move the world forward. It is through the drive and determination of brilliant scientists and engineers that we are witnessing true progress,” says Activate CEO Cyrus Wadia. “Our current Activate Fellows and alumni are already pioneering innovative solutions that make a measurable difference. We’re thrilled to support the next 62 visionaries who will lead the charge in addressing our most urgent issues through groundbreaking science and technology.”
Activate Houston
Our brand new Activate Houston Community welcomes 11 inaugural fellows, who will benefit from Houston’s rapidly expanding innovation ecosystem and the region’s tradition of innovation in energy, materials, life sciences, space, and other sectors.
The inaugural fellows in the Activate Houston Community are advancing technologies across agriculture, life sciences, chemistry, materials, robotics, built environment, space and aeronautics, and carbon management. Some exciting innovations include removing per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from water using UV light, tracking crop pollinators using lidar and machine-learning algorithms, inventing a highly dexterous, affordable robotic hand to address labor shortages, and the world’s first high-throughput and low-cost nanomanufacturing system.
Activate Anywhere
Recognizing that talent exists in every part of the United States, Activate Anywhere is a virtual community of connected but not co-located fellows. Fellows work in their local innovation ecosystem, plugged into Activate’s network of mentorship, education, and community.
The 12 new fellows joining the Activate Anywhere Community are located in ten U.S. cities, including Denver, CO; Raleigh, NC; Baltimore, MD; and Milwaukee, WI. These fellows are developing solutions in several fields: water purification, quantum networks, fast diagnostics, quantum inspired computing, “forever chemicals” degradation, toxins detection, 3D printing, methane elimination, vacuum-insulated glass windows that are as insulating as walls, and “bearingless” electric motors that could improve their efficiency to over 90 percent.
Activate New York
The Activate New York Community supports science entrepreneurs as they build and scale innovations, primarily in carbon tech. The community’s 13 new fellows are developing cutting-edge solutions for carbon capture, energy storage, water purification, sustainable materials, and more to help drive the next pillars of decarbonization. The Activate New York Community is a collaboration with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to forge New York State’s Carbontech Development Initiative.
Activate Boston
The Activate Boston Community will be joined by 12 new fellows pushing boundaries across a variety of domains, from defense to energy to biotech. One fellow’s ammonia synthesis reactor would replace the Haber Bosch Process, potentially preventing the emission of over 140 million tons of CO2 annually while simultaneously supplying ammonia to sustain over three billion people. Another fellow aims to reduce wildfire risk with autonomous drone maps. Another is developing a coating for solar panels to convert wasted ultraviolet light to usable infrared.
Activate Berkeley
Activate’s longest-standing community, Activate Berkeley, welcomes 14 fellows in its 10th cohort to date. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, fellows are solving critical problems such as designing compact transformers to dramatically improve electricity access, recycling textile waste to create circular clothing supply chains, and developing a sustainable alternative to palm oil using biomass waste. Most fellows in the Activate Berkeley Community embed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Cyclotron Road program, where Activate’s entrepreneurial fellowship model originated.
"At Activate, we believe diversity in science cultivates a rich tapestry of perspectives that are crucial to solving society’s most complex problems,” says Brenna Teigler, Activate’s Chief Fellowship Officer. “We continue to prioritize diversity of people and ideas in our fellowship cohorts. We saw an uptick in founders of color since last year, jumping from 43 percent to 52 percent. This year, 24 percent of Cohort 2024 are women, and we are working toward increasing the number of female science entrepreneurs in years to come.”
Cohort 2024 joins a community of 249 Activate Fellows and alumni who have collectively raised more than $2.3B in follow-on funding from public and private sources since Activate’s founding in 2015—a nearly 38X leverage on every dollar spent to support fellowships.
