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The Sustainability Accelerator at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability has welcomed the first cohort of its new postdoctoral fellowship program for innovators, announced in spring 2024. The four fellows will focus on removing billions of tons of greenhouse gases from Earth’s atmosphere each year by 2050 as part of the Accelerator’s Greenhouse Gas Removal cohort.

“Though these scientists are still relatively early in their research careers, they represent the future of sustainability and carbon removal strategies. Being named Accelerator Fellows is a recognition that the work they have done to date shows great promise,” said Fortinet Founders Professor Yi Cui, faculty director of the Sustainability Accelerator and a leading expert in nanotechnologies for next-generation batteries and sustainable materials. “As a mentor, I look forward to working with and guiding them as they pursue and launch creative, scalable, and interdisciplinary solutions to our climate crisis.”

Greenhouse Gas Removal is the first of the Accelerator’s “Flagship Destinations” – targets selected for potential to rapidly apply Stanford research to global sustainability challenges. The Accelerator recently added five new destinations, plus two “cross-cutting platforms” that will help inform all six targets.

“I could not have hoped for a more promising first class of Sustainability Accelerator Fellows, and I look forward to seeing where their work takes us,” said Jeffrey Brown, managing director of the Greenhouse Gas Removal Flagship Destination. “The solutions they are proposing are inspiring for their innovative approaches to these complex problems but also for their practical potential to make a significant contribution to real and meaningful reductions in carbon dioxide in the skies and waters.”

One fellow aims to turn agricultural waste into stable carbon that can be stored or used in low-carbon applications. Another will use solar power to convert excess carbon dioxide into valuable, marketable chemicals. A third will work to create a reactor that removes carbon dioxide from air and seawater. The fourth fellow will develop concrete – currently a major source of greenhouse gases – into a carbon-negative commodity.

Each fellow will be mentored by Stanford faculty members including Cui, Dean Arun Majumdar, materials scientist Jennifer Dionne, and chemical engineer Thomas Jaramillo. They will receive support from Accelerator staff to translate their solutions into successful ventures.

Sustainability Accelerator Fellowship director Audrey Yau noted the inaugural fellows’ breadth of skills and depth of experience. “These four fellows were chosen from a highly competitive pool for the creative approaches they’ve developed to reach aggressive carbon removal targets. We are committed to helping them get established in the entrepreneurial sustainability community so that their solutions can quickly scale from proof-of-concept to impact at a global scale.”

Alex Al-Zubeidi earned his doctorate in chemistry at Rice University in 2022. He has developed photo-electrochemical techniques using renewable-but-intermittent solar energy to convert airborne CO2 into other valuable chemicals. Similar large-scale technologies produce chemicals needing additional thermal processing incompatible with intermittent solar power. In response, Al-Zubeidi created a smaller high-turnover electrolyzer converting CO2 into industrial ethylene; his reactor can be rapidly turned on and off based on solar energy's intermittent nature. Al-Zubeidi will be advised by materials scientist Jennifer Dionne.

Divya Chalise completed his PhD in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley in 2023. He aims to use chemistry and thermal physics to turn annual agricultural waste into stable high-carbon biochar for long-term underground storage—a process often hindered by cost efficiency issues Chalise hopes he can address by producing biochar at room temperature within reasonable costs ($10-$50 per ton) scaling production up significantly over time with advice from mentors Arun Majumdar & Yi Cui.

Qi Zheng earned his doctorate degree specializing civil/environmental engineering (UC Berkeley-2024). His fellowship goal involves perfecting zero-carbon cement—sequestering atmospheric CO2 actively during cement-making processes—a solution potentially growing towards gigaton scales under guidance received via mentor Yi Cui

Peng Zhu completed PhD focusing chemical/biomolecular engineering (Rice University-2023); innovating efficient durable reactors capturing CO₂ continuously both atmospherically/seawater based utilizing advanced material enhancements supporting economic/sustainability goals via mentorship provided through Tom Jaramillo

All fellowships last one year (renewable option available), accessible any recent PhD graduate accredited universities various disciplines ranging sciences/engineering policy/economics/business fields included financially backed salary/R&D funding additionally professional development encompassing research mentoring entrepreneurial coaching services offered network leaders law/policy business engineering environmental sciences globally recognized affiliated partnerships available too

Applications open October 14th closing December 31st decision March start June interested candidates encouraged reviewing scope details updated October website hosted informational resources upcoming calls related insights/events delivered inbox daily subscription services optional ©Stanford University rights reserved