A.J. Simon

Head of Industrial Decarbonization

Carbon Utilization + Hydrogen + Point Source Capture

A.J. Simon leads Carbon Direct’s hybrid and engineered carbon technologies group.

A.J. translates scientific and engineering expertise into actionable strategies for client organizations seeking permanent carbon removal.

Background & Bio

A.J. Simon is a mechanical engineer and energy systems expert, whose passion for efficiency and insatiable curiosity has led to a 20+ year career spanning industry, academia and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Prior to joining Carbon Direct, he managed the Energy Group at Lawrence Livermore National Lab where he led assessments of technologies as diverse as carbon capture and removal, the energy-water nexus, nuclear energy, hydrogen fuel, building energy efficiency, and soldier-portable power.

From 2003 to 2008, he helped to manage a large portfolio of university-led clean energy research at Stanford's Global Climate and Energy Project. From 2001 to 2003, he developed combustion and emissions control technologies for General Electric's diesel and gas turbine product lines.

Education

MS, Mechanical Engineering

Stanford University

BS, Mechanical Engineering

Stanford University

Awards

Oppenheimer Science and Energy Fellow (2018)

Department of Energy

Secretary’s Honor Award (2016)

Department of Energy

Scientific Editor for Science & Technology Review (2013)

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Centennial Teaching Assistant (2000)

Stanford University

Publications and Features

and airplane wing over mountains at sunset

blog

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May 17, 2023

A primer on the future of sustainable aviation fuel

Alex Dolginow

Senior Science Analyst

Forest Management

Alex works with clients to advise them on high-quality carbon reduction and removal solutions.

Background & Bio

Alex is an environmental professional with a background in climate change, land use, environmental markets, and modeling. His experience spans science-based research, project management, and strategy.

Prior to joining Carbon Direct, Alex ran his own independent consulting group, Dolginow Consulting, where he advised clients on environmental issues. His projects have included helping to create a greenhouse gas emissions model and advising on philanthropic grantmaking to slow deforestation.

Education

MS, Energy and Resources Group

UC Berkeley

BA

Harvard University

Publications and Features

blog

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Feb 28, 2022

Accounting for Short-Term Durability in Carbon Offsetting

Amber Kerr, PhD

Science Advisor

Soil Carbon + Forest Management

Dr. Amber Kerr is a Science Advisor for forest management.

Her role is to objectively evaluate the technical and biological feasibility of land-based carbon sequestration projects.

Background & Bio

Dr. Kerr is an agricultural ecologist with a strong interest in undergraduate education. She is currently working as an adjunct faculty member at UC Berkeley during the summer and at Las Positas College in Livermore during the academic year. She teaches classes in basic biology, applied ecology, climate science, and sustainable energy.

Dr. Kerr completed her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group in Fall 2012. Her dissertation focused on agroforestry (growing trees together with crops) as a tool for drought adaptation in southern Africa. Dr. Kerr has several years of field experience in Malawi and Kenya, but has also worked on a variety of research projects in California. Her core topics of expertise are ecology, agriculture, climate, and sustainable development.

Education

PhD, Energy and Resources Group

UC Berkeley

MS, Earth Systems

Stanford University

BS, Earth Systems

Stanford University

Amy Stuckert, PhD

Senior Decarbonization Engineer

Direct Air Capture (DAC) + Hydrogen + Point Source Capture

Amy's passion for climate change and actionability has led her to focus her career on this and how she and others can make an immediate direct impact. She received her PhD at the University of Michigan with a focus on hydrogen storage and direct air capture. From there she spent nine years in industrial gas research and development commercializing many technologies from initial concept to full deployment. Her past years have been spent as a technology expert focusing on hydrogen storage/transportation and decarbonized production methods including carbon capture and storage, electrolysis and pyrolysis.

At Carbon Direct Inc. she helps our clients identify decarbonization options using hydrogen and future technologies for them to integrate hydrogen cost effectively into their carbon management plans.

Education

B.S. Chemical Engineering and Chemistry

University of Wyoming

M.S. Chemical Engineering

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Ph.D. Chemical Engineering

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Awards

American-Made Energy Storage Innovations Prize

Antaeres Antoniuk-Pablant, PhD

Science Advisor

Carbon Utilization + Point Source Capture

Dr. Antaeres Antoniuk-Pablant is a Science Advisor for carbon capture and utilization.

Background & Bio

Dr. Antoniuk-Pablant is a research scientist focusing on carbon capture and utilization, as well as solar energy harvesting. Her expertise spans organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, photochemistry, electrochemistry, and bio-electrochemistry.

Dr. Antoniuk-Pablant received her BS from UC Santa Cruz in Chemistry with a focus on environmental chemistry, and subsequently worked in three analytical chemistry labs at the university. She received her PhD in Organic Chemistry from Arizona State University in 2015, where she designed, synthesized, characterized, and studied organic dyes for research on dye sensitized solar cells. She did her postdoctoral studies at Stanford University where she investigated new methods for converting CO2 to useful chemicals or fuels though developing new platforms for combing electrochemical CO2 reduction and microbial metabolism.

Education

PhD, Organic Chemistry

Arizona State University

BS, Chemistry

University of California, Santa Cruz

Arash Saboori, PhD

Carbon Accounting Specialist

Carbon Accounting + Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Arash Saboori employs his experience in sustainability and data engineering to develop highly-scalable, automated solutions for corporations to conduct carbon footprinting and quantify social impacts across their entire value chain.

As a Carbon Accounting Specialist at Carbon Direct, Arash works with clients to manage carbon footprinting projects. He also collaborates with the product and development teams on designing, improving, and automating the products and services that Carbon Direct offers.

Background & Bio

Before joining Carbon Direct, Arash worked as a Senior Analyst at a consulting firm, helping some Fortune 500 corporations with their CDP reporting. His focus was on standardizing and streamlining main workflows, developing automated pipelines – for processing clients' raw data and matching them with backend LCA databases to quantify their impacts – and designing dynamic and highly customizable data visualization reports in Power BI. He also enjoyed collaborating directly with some of the more sophisticated clients in creating strategic planning models by identifying different decarbonization pathways, calculating marginal abatement cost curves, and conducting sensitivity analysis and risk assessment.

Education

PhD, Civil & Environmental Engineering

University of California, Davis

MSc, Transportation Technology & Policy

University of California, Davis

BSc, Civil & Environmental Engineering

Sharif University of Technology

Awards

PhD Dissertation Grant

National Center for Sustainable Transportation, provided by the US Department of Transportation

Bodie Cabiyo, PhD

Senior Science Analyst

Environmental Science & Policy + Forest Management

Dr. Bodie Cabiyo works with clients on strategy and procurement to find and vet high-quality carbon offsets projects.

He also leads multiple internal efforts focused on principles and guidance to push the market towards high-quality carbon projects.

Background & Bio

Dr. Cabiyo uses interdisciplinary approaches to investigate nature-based solutions to climate change. He has recently completed his PhD in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley, where he studied how policy and innovative technology can enable carbon-beneficial forest management. This work bridges industrial ecology, forest economics, and forest ecology.

Dr. Cabiyo's modeling work has focused on the role of innovative wood use in reducing carbon emissions, both in California and East Africa. His applied policy work focuses on improving forest carbon offset protocols. The intent of this work is to promote the more credible translation of carbon dioxide removals to a market context.

Education

PhD, Energy and Resources Group

UC Berkeley

MS, Energy and Resources Group

UC Berkeley

BS

Western Washington University

Awards

Achievement Award

Secretary of Energy

NSF Graduate Research Fellow

Graduate Research Fellowship Program

Presidential Scholar

Huxley School of the Environment

Publications and Features

blog

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Feb 28, 2022

Accounting for Short-Term Durability in Carbon Offsetting

Christian Braneon, PhD

Head of Climate Justice

Environmental Science & Policy + Geospatial Analysis + Climate Justice

Dr. Christian Braneon is Head of Climate Justice at Carbon Direct.

Dr. Braneon leads the integration of climate justice into Carbon Direct’s culture, operations, and services across the carbon management industry.

Background & Bio

Dr. Braneon brings a broad range of experience in climate science and civil engineering as well as environmental and climate justice to Carbon Direct. He co-leads the Environmental Justice and Climate Just Cities Network at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, serves as Co-Chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, and sits on the newly formed Center for Climate Solutions’ Advisory Committee, which was established to further New York City’s efforts to respond to the climate crisis.

Prior to joining Carbon Direct, Dr. Braneon served as a climate scientist in the Climate Impacts Group of NASA GISS and as Co-Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s inaugural Environmental Justice Academy for community leaders.

Education

PhD, Civil Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

MS, Civil Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

BS, Civil Engineering

Georgia Institute of Technology

BS, Applied Physics

Morehouse College

Awards

Quantification of Historic and Future Changes in Atlantic Coastal Marshes and Implications for Global Modeling

NASA

Robert H. Goddard Award

AXA Award for Climate Science

Climate Action Plan Award

White House

Publications and Features

blog

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Oct 25, 2022

Climate Justice at Carbon Direct: Embedding Equity Into Our Company’s End-to-End Carbon Management Solutions

Claire Nelson, PhD

Science Advisor

Carbon Mineralization + Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) + Geologic Carbon Storage + Enhanced Rock Weathering

Dr. Nelson is a geochemist with expertise in basalt chemical weathering, aqueous geochemistry, and secondary mineral formation. Her current interests include geologic carbon storage, specifically in-situ mineralization in mafic rock formations, as well as coastal and terrestrial enhanced weathering.

Currently, Dr. Nelson holds a position as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory where she uses reactive transport modeling to optimize large-scale injections of CO2 into basaltic reservoirs.

Education

PhD., Earth and Planetary Sciences

Northwestern University

M.S., Earth and Planetary Sciences

Northwestern University

B.S., Geology

Union College

Claudia Herbert, PhD

Science Advisor

Forest Management + Geospatial Analysis

Dr. Claudia Herbert is a Science Advisor at the intersection of climate science and software.

Background & Bio

Dr. Herbert received her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley. Her doctoral work focused on applications of geospatial analysis and remote sensing in the context of North American fire and forest carbon management. She now focuses on software innovation in the fight against climate change.

Education

PhD, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

UC Berkeley

BS, Conservation and Resource Studies

UC Berkeley

Awards

Honorable Mention, Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon

NASA

Department Citation, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management

UC Berkeley

Colin McCormick, PhD

Chief Innovation Officer

Direct Air Capture (DAC) + Carbon Mineralization + Hydrogen

Dr. Colin McCormick provides science and technology expertise across a wide range of engineered carbon removal methods and industrial decarbonization sectors.

He also supports Carbon Direct’s work in remote sensing, life-cycle analysis, and carbon removal policy analysis.

Background & Bio

Dr. Colin McCormick previously served as the Senior Advisor for R&D at the US Department of Energy where he helped oversee the full applied energy research portfolio, and as a Professional Staff Member for the House Science & Technology Committee. Prior to this he conducted research in applied quantum optics and atomic physics at UC Berkeley and NIST. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Science, Technology and International Affairs program, Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Education

PhD, Physics

UC Berkeley

MA, Physics

UC Berkeley

MA, Astrophysics

Cambridge University

BA, English and Physics

Williams College

Awards

Secretary of Energy Achievement Award

Getting to Neutral report (2021)

Publications and Features

blog

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Mar 2, 2021

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Dan Sanchez, PhD

Chief Scientist for Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) + Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS)

Dr. Daniel Sanchez evaluates promising technologies and companies, assesses first-of-its-kind carbon removal projects, and helps to scale markets for biomass carbon removal and storage.

Background & Bio

Dr. Sanchez is an early developer and leading expert on engineered biomass and bioenergy systems that remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Trained as an engineer and energy systems analyst, Sanchez’s work engages technology developers, policymakers, and corporations to advance sustainable biomass carbon removal and storage.

Dr. Sanchez is on entrepreneurial leave from the University of California-Berkeley, where he is an Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. Prior to joining the faculty of UC Berkeley, Daniel was a AAAS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow serving in the Office of Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO).

Education

BSE, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

University of Pennsylvania

MS, Energy and Resources Group

UC Berkeley

PhD, Energy and Resources Group

UC Berkeley

Awards

Secretary of Energy Achievement Award

United States Department of Energy (2021)

Dave Lee, PhD

Science Advisor

Blue Carbon + Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE)

Dr. Dave Lee is a Science Advisor for nature-based solutions.

Dr. Lee provides technical advice on emerging bio-based carbon removal technologies, either for potential investment opportunities or as sources of carbon offsets.

Background & Bio

Dr. Lee is a plant molecular biologist, and has been working with the U.S. Department of Energy’s ARPA-E to develop novel technologies in the agricultural and biotechnology fields. These include technologies ranging from enhanced bioenergy crops to sensors and models to accurately quantify GHG fluxes in agricultural environments.

Dr. Lee has experience with agricultural systems in both terrestrial and marine environments, which range from traditional row crops such as corn to macroalgae. He is currently investigating synthetic biology and other interdisciplinary approaches to terrestrial carbon biosequestration (carbon farming).

Education

PhD

UC San Diego

BS

Harvey Mudd College

David Ho, PhD

Science Advisor

Blue Carbon + Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE)

Dr. David Ho is a Science Advisor for blue carbon.

Background & Bio

David Ho is a Professor of Oceanography in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and an Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

He is a geochemist whose research focuses on air-sea gas exchange in coastal and open oceans environments, the carbon cycle in mangrove and coral reef ecosystems, and the use of tracers to study transport processes in aquatic systems.

Dr. Ho currently serves on the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry Project’s Ocean-Atmosphere Interaction Committee, and is a member of Ocean Visions’ Expert Team on the Safe Elevation of Alkalinity for the Mitigation of Acidification Through Electrochemistry (SEA MATE) project.

Erica Belmont, PhD

Science Advisor

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) + Biochar

Dr. Erica Belmont is a Science Advisor for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).

Background & Bio

Dr. Belmont is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wyoming. Her research interests include combustion and pyrolysis with an emphasis on tailoring biomass conversion for energy and materials, as well as fire with an emphasis on pollutant formation.

Dr. Belmont received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas-Austin; and her master’s degree in mechanical engineering and her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, both from Tufts University.

Education

PhD, Mechanical Engineering

University of Texas, Austin

MS, Chemical Engineering

Tufts University

BS, Chemical Engineering

Tufts University

Awards

Career Award

NSF

Meet our world-class science team

Our Scientists

A primer on the future of sustainable aviation fuel

Accounting for Short-Term Durability in Carbon Offsetting

Accounting for Short-Term Durability in Carbon Offsetting

Climate Justice at Carbon Direct: Embedding Equity Into Our Company’s End-to-End Carbon Management Solutions

Planes, Trains and Automobiles