In 2021, Dr. Antonio Baclig founded Inlyte Energy to create low-cost grid storage with the support of the Activate Fellowship based at Cyclotron Road in LBNL. Dr. Baclig’s expertise on novel grid battery chemistries stems from his research at Stanford University’s Materials Science & Engineering department, where he received his PhD and postdoc. Prior to that, Dr. Baclig was an early employee at a venture-backed carbon sequestration startup and received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University.

Bor-Rong (Hypo)’s work at  Idaho National Laboratory (INL) focuses on building techniques for identifying aging phenomena in fast-charging Lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. These techniques pinpoint where, when, and why aging happens in batteries at an early stage during operation. Hypo’s research will significantly accelerate the development cycles for more durable Li batteries, a critical key for promoting the deployment of electric vehicles and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  

Jason Cotrell is the Founder and CEO of RCAM Technologies, Inc.—a rapidly growing international cleantech startup dedicated to developing advanced concrete manufacturing technologies and components for renewable energy and ocean energy storage systems. Jason has been working in Renewable Energy since the mid 90’s. He worked 22 years at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado where he was a senior engineer and manager of the 15-person Wind Turbine Technology and Innovation Group before starting RCAM Technologies in 2017.  Jason has a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and Master of Business Administration from the University of Colorado.

Ryan is a seasoned business leader and strategist, having spent 30+ years in the energy industry helping companies grow, improve profitability, and optimize their business portfolio.  He has worked for Shell, Emerson, McKinsey & Company, AES, Lafarge, and ABS Group before helping launch Cryostone.  Ryan has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.  

Nian Liu is an Assistant Professor at School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech. He received B.S. in 2009 from Fudan University, and Ph.D. in 2014 from Stanford University, where he worked with Prof. Yi Cui on the structure design for Si anodes for high-energy Li-ion batteries. From 2014 to 2016, he worked in Prof. Steven Chu lab at Stanford University as a postdoc, where he developed in situ optical microscopy to probe beam-sensitive battery reactions. Dr. Liu’s lab at Georgia Tech is broadly interested in the combination of nanomaterials, electrochemistry, and light microscopy for studying the global energy challenges. Specifically, the Liu’s lab is focusing on electric vehicle battery and stationary battery science and technologies. His publications have been cited over 26,000 times. He is the recipient of the Electrochemical Society (ECS) Daniel Cubicciotti Award (2014), American Chemical Society (ACS) Division of Inorganic Chemistry Young Investigator Award (2015), Chemistry of Materials Up-and-Coming Researcher (2017), and Journal of Materials Chemistry A Emerging Investigator (2018), and Jim Pope CREATE-X Faculty Fellow (2021).

David Mackanic is the founder and CEO of Anthro Energy, a company inventing next-generation polymer materials to create batteries that are flexible, safe, and high-performance. He earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford University with a focus on polymer science and electrochemistry. At Stanford, Mackanic was supported by the Stanford Graduate and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. He was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy for 2021 and was awarded the MRS Gold Award and the ACS Bright Science Award. Additionally, Mackanic previously worked in venture capital as an Investment Partner at the Dorm Room Fund.

Brian hails from Hillsboro, Oregon. After undergraduate research at MIT, he studied electrochemistry as a DOE Fellowship graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill with Professor Jillian Dempsey. As a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden he worked at the fusion of robotics, materials science, and ion physics while managing diverse team projects. Brian now uses his experience to lead cutting-edge battery research at EC Power. Outside EC Power he looks for birds and runs Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.

Jan Naidu the CEO of ReVolt Battery Technology Corporation. He provides the vision at ReVolt to enable EV vendors reduce their environmental footprint while building an ecosystem of partners to develop a business case around battery reuse via stationary energy storage systems to make end-of-life repurposing as easy as possible.

Kathryn Otte is a Post Bachelors Research Associate at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in the Decision Modeling & Optimization Group. She specializes in multi-objective optimization, data analytics, simulation, and predictive modeling. At PNNL, Kathryn’s research applications include building digitalization, national security, and energy storage. She is part of the PNNL task force helping coordinate the Digitalisation Working Group for the International Energy Agency’s Energy Efficiency Hub. In this role, Kathryn is working to identify and characterize policy and technological barriers to widespread energy efficiency digitalization in buildings. During her time at PNNL, she has also contributed to siting, permitting, and safety research for the DOE Energy Storage Grand Challenge’s Policy & Valuation Track.

Formerly, Kathryn interned at Sandia National Laboratories, once in Wind Energy Technologies and once in Nuclear Deterrence Modernization & Future Systems. In August 2021, Kathryn earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and a minor in Sustainable Cities from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dula Parkinson is the Deputy for Photon Science Operations at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He also leads the Diffraction and Imaging Program and is the principal beamline scientist for X-ray micro-tomography at the ALS. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship with UCSF doing nanoCT X-ray imaging of whole cells, received a PhD in Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley doing ultrafast spectroscopy of photosynthetic systems, and received a BS in Chemistry from BYU doing infrared imaging of treated wood.

Dr. Manas Pathak is co-founder and CEO of EarthEn, a climate-tech startup with patent-pending, sCO2 based technology for long-duration energy storage. He has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Utah and finishing his MBA from Arizona State University. In the past, Manas has been an Affiliate Scientist and Fellow at Energy & Geoscience Institute (EGI) at the University of Utah. At EGI Manas examined the interaction between kerogen and formation fluids and its importance in predicting the Pressure-Volume-Temperature properties of oils. He also investigated enhanced recovery through CO2 sequestration in shales during his time in the Department of Energy’s National Lab in Idaho. He is author of multiple journal papers in the energy sector, specifically oil & gas and has delivered several well-accepted talks and panel discussions in different conferences. He also serves as a reviewer for multiple oil and gas journals. He is a professional member of Society of Petroleum Engineers, American Association of Petroleum Geologists and Society of Exploration Geophysics.

Engineer involved in the oil/gas industry as facilities engineer and project manager for both onshore and Deepwater offshore facilities.  Now developing large scale energy storage using underground pumped storage hydroelectric with salt dome caverns.

Mr. Tanner is an experienced executive in the renewable energy industry with experience in scaling both hardware and software technologies. Specifically, he has more than 20 years of experience leading the commercialization efforts for early-stage clean technology companies. Mr. Tanner is a professional engineer who has led commercial teams in U.S. and Australian markets, overseen the deployment of utility scale CSP technology, led the design of CPV and heliostat technologies, developed renewable energy projects and developed energy management software for energy storage systems. Prior to Yotta, he held senior management roles at Geli and GreenSync, both of which were successfully acquired. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA both from The University of Sydney. Mr. Tanner is also the co-inventor of three issued patents.

Dani Ushizima is a computer scientist who investigates computational approaches based on machine learning to interface data-driven models to materials characterization toward self-driving labs. Main expertise is on computer vision applied to high-resolution data for measuring 2D and 3D structure across spatial and temporal scales. Her research work has advanced the design of new materials imaged using instruments reliant on x-ray, electron, confocal, and other light-matter interactions. Current focus is on deep learning algorithms for improved quality control and decision making applied to samples, such as lithium metal batteries and biofuel plants. Dr. Ushizima is also a faculty affiliated to the Berkeley Institute of Data Science, at UC Berkeley, and the Bakar Institute, at UC San Francisco.

Alex Zorniger is the Vice President of Business Development at Power to Hydrogen, a startup commercializing green hydrogen and reversible fuel cell technology. Alex has been involved in sustainability efforts for nearly a decade since studying Social Entrepreneurship at Tufts University for his undergraduate degree. He has held executive level positions for multiple startups helping to lead fundraising, revenue growth, and go-to-market strategies. Before joining the Power to Hydrogen team, he completed his MBA at the Ohio State University.