Meet the 39 New Activate Fellows Who Are on a Mission to Build a Cleaner, Safer Society

After months of deliberations and weeks of preparation, we are thrilled to introduce our next cohort of Activate Fellows. 

These 39 founders are turning their breakthroughs into businesses that could help industries, including manufacturing, energy, chemicals, computing, and defense, meet decarbonization and resiliency goals. Some are charting a new course after years in industry and others are joining straight out of academia. And all of them bring a deep conviction in the power of science and engineering to improve lives and redefine what’s possible.

Today marks a new beginning not just for these new Activate Fellows, but for us, too. Building on the early success of the entrepreneurial research model we developed in Berkeley and Boston, we’ve launched Activate Anywhere and Activate New York in order to support more fellows, in more places, for more impact.

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Activate Anywhere

The Activate Anywhere Community recognizes that every U.S. region is home to scientists and engineers with a vision for solving big problems. Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not. Activate Anywhere is changing that. The 12 inaugural fellows in this community are located in seven U.S. cities, including Atlanta, GA, Madison, WI, and Fort Collins, CO. They are commercializing breakthrough research in everything from desalination to data center cooling to decarbonized steelmaking.

Mariam Awara, Pulsenics

Pulsenics measures electrochemical performance without disruption to enable reliable clean energy processes at scale.

Essam Elsahwi, Pulsenics

Pulsenics measures electrochemical performance without disruption to enable reliable clean energy processes at scale.

Zach Gilvey, Impact Cooling

Impact Cooling strives to save 2 percent of global electricity through better data center cooling.

Olivia Dippo, Limelight Steel

Limelight Steel is on a mission to decarbonize the steel industry with a revolutionary laser furnace technology.

Margaret Lumley, ChloBis Water

ChloBis Water addresses global water shortages by combining the functions of salt removal, energy generation and storage, and commodity chemical production.

Florian Herrault, PseudolithIC

PseudolithIC is delivering leading mm-Wave communication solutions through its innovative heterogeneous integration technology that promises to revolutionize the semiconductor industry.

David Hobby, Impact Cooling

Impact Cooling strives to save 2 percent of global electricity through better data center cooling.

Daniel Green, PseudolithIC

PseudolithIC is delivering leading mm-Wave communication solutions through its innovative heterogeneous integration technology that promises to revolutionize the semiconductor industry.

Austin Hickman, Soctera

Soctera is developing millimeter-wave power amplifiers on the aluminum nitride platform for defense radar and 5G telecommunication networks.

Andy Zhao, Limelight Steel

Limelight Steel is on a mission to decarbonize the steel industry with a revolutionary laser furnace technology.

Alexa Schmitz, REEGen

REEgen is using biology to cleanly and sustainably recycle rare earth elements in the United States.

Ally McKinney, Solopulse

Solopulse’s proprietary signal processing approach provides higher-resolution, lower-complexity solutions across telecommunications, autonomous transport, healthcare, and other sectors.

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Activate New York

With support from the $19.5 million Carbontech Development Initiative, announced by New York State in April 2021, the new Activate New York Community provides entrepreneurs with the resources and training needed to scale carbontech innovations as society reckons with the need to decarbonize all sectors quickly. Innovations in carbon dioxide removal, utilization and storage, and advances in biomaterials manufacturing and agriculture are among the solutions the six inaugural fellows in New York are pursuing.

Sudharsan Dwaraknath, Quorum Bio

Quorum Bio engineers the plant microbiome to make global agriculture more sustainable, productive, and resilient to climate stress.

Rob Moak, SIRGE Technologies

SIRGE Technologies is de-risking geologic carbon storage through deformation sensing.

Rob Mohr, Innate Energy

Innate Energy builds gravity-driven batteries for reliable, low-cost energy storage.

Marissa Beatty, FilterPig

FilterPig efficiently converts impure CO2 streams into valuable, selective products without significant upstream or downstream purification.

Garrett Boudinot, N3GATIVE CO.

N3GATIVE CO. provides the tools to create, verify, and exchange permanent agricultural carbon dioxide removal through offsets and products.

Ashley Beckwith, FORAY Bioscience

FORAY is leveraging biotechnology to produce forest products without cutting down a single tree.

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Activate Boston

Joining the Activate Boston Community are 10 fellows advancing the bioeconomy, improving productivity, and enabling more efficient, sustainable clean energy systems. Their applications include unlocking the potential of microbes for a range of applications, sourcing essential materials for renewable energy systems, and boosting efficiency in the energy sector.

Mo Alkhadra, ExtractIon Technologies

ExtractIon Technologies is using breakthroughs in applied electrochemistry for sustainable extraction and refining of critical minerals.

Peter Godart, Found Energy

Found Energy converts aluminum waste to cheap, carbon-free hydrogen at five times the volumetric energy density of liquid hydrogen.

Terence Davidovits, ThermoBionics

ThermoBionics is developing ultralight wearable cooling for 30 million people in the U.S. who don’t have air-conditioned working environments.

Pavan Kota, Anvil Diagnostics

Anvil Diagnostics is developing a rapid, cost-effective test to quantify all types of bacteria and fungi in a sample.

Carlos Navarro, Closed Composites

Closed Composites recycles waste carbon fiber composites and offers high-quality, clean recycled carbon fiber fabrics for remanufacturing.

Jonathan Vardner, Still Bright

Still Bright is advancing sustainable, economic, and domestic copper production.

Andee Wallace, Robigo

Robigo is engineering the plant microbiome to create a more sustainable food system.

Timothy Wannier, Wild Microbes

Wild Microbes is domesticating and engineering wild bacteria, and building a strain catalog that will lower costs and improve process robustness across the bioeconomy.

Yajing Zhao, Mesophase

Mesophase is revolutionizing the condenser industry with surface engineering to improve steam power plant energy efficiency.

Auggie Zvinavashe, Ivu Biologics

Ivu Biologics is a platform-based company focused on storing and delivering microbes for more sustainable agriproducts.

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Activate Berkeley

Welcoming its eighth cohort, the Activate Berkeley Community continues its legacy of hosting fellows who are pushing the boundaries of material science and nanotechnology. These 11 incoming fellows are advancing innovations such as carbon-free production of critical chemicals, turning wastes into circular products, and faster, more efficient computing and energy storage systems. 

Bilen Akuzum, Aepnus Technology

Aepnus is developing an electrochemical technology to enable the cost-competitive and carbon-free production of critical chemicals in the U.S.

Matthew Anderson, Ọsọ Semiconductor

Ọsọ is an innovative fabless semiconductor company selling ultralow-power, performance microchips to supercharge the antennas of the future.

Behtash Behin-Aein, Ludwig Computing

Ludwig Computing is developing probabilistic chips for accelerated, energy-efficient computing.

Katherine French, BluumBio

BluumBio makes bacteria and plants that remove toxic chemicals from the environment.

Lukas Hackl, Aepnus Technology

Aepnus is developing an electrochemical technology to enable the cost-competitive and carbon-free production of critical chemicals in the U.S.

Jan Kaiser, Ludwig Computing

Ludwig Computing is developing probabilistic chips for accelerated, energy-efficient computing.

Haodong Liu, Tyfast

Tyfast is building fast-charging, long-life, compact lithium batteries for always-on consumer electronics, robotics, and EV applications.

GJ la O', Tyfast

Tyfast is building fast-charging, long-life, compact lithium batteries for always-on consumer electronics, robotics, and EV applications.

Danielle Pascoli, VERDE Nanomaterials

VERDE Nanomaterials is enabling sustainable and cost-effective nanocellulose production using low-cost renewable feedstocks and green conversion processes.

Sarah Placella, Root Applied Sciences

Root Applied Sciences’ precision pathogen management provides farmers with the confidence to spray pesticides at just the right time.

Daniel T. Sun, Sunchem

Sunchem’s Nano Filters separate and purify critical metals from contaminated water.

“The Activate Fellows we’ve selected for Cohort 2022, our largest cohort to date, give me tremendous hope,” says Activate CEO Ilan Gur. “Their passion and commitment to improving the world through science provide much-needed optimism and inspiration as the world wrestles with the risks of intensifying climate change, a lingering pandemic, and economic and geopolitical uncertainty.” 

Our dedicated, forward-thinking network of sponsors and partners makes the fellowship possible through direct funding, donations of time, money, equipment, or services. In addition to generous philanthropic partners, we are supported by the Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the California Energy Commission, and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).