Andes announces its Scientific Advisory Board
May 14, 2024— Andes, a climate startup generating permanent carbon removal in agricultural soils, is pleased to announce its distinguished Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). This group is composed of leading experts across the fields of environmental microbiology, geochemistry, soil carbon, and more. They provide critical advice, perspective, and insight to Andes’ technology and the wider scientific community on microbial carbon mineralization.
Last year, Andes launched the first ever Microbial Carbon Mineralization Methodology, written with the input from leading experts. The company also commenced a research partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to study soil carbon cycling, as part of the Department of Energy’s Energy Earthshots Initiative. For the last few years, Andes has also been building strong partnerships within academia and recently added world class scientists to its SAB.
The SAB has been working closely with Andes’ scientists to leverage collective expertise to drive this crucial pathway of carbon removal forward with integrity and transparency. The SAB brings together the following prestigious leaders in their respective fields:
Dr. Noah Fierer is a professor in the Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EBIO) department, a fellow at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), and the Director of the Center for Microbial Exploration at the University of Colorado. Dr. Fierer’s work explores the distribution and roles of microorganisms in diverse environments and the relevance of microbes to the health and function of ecosystems, plants, and animals.
Dr. Dan Breecker is a professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Breecker’s research combines mathematical models, laboratory and field-based experiments to study biogeochemical processes at or near the land surface, with a particular interest in carbonate formation and stability in soils.
Dr. Kazem Zamanian is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Earth System Sciences, Leibniz University of Hannover, Germany. Dr. Zamanian is a leading expert on the dynamics of soil inorganic carbon under various land-uses including agro-ecosystems, and the dynamics of carbon and nitrogen in the unsaturated zone (from land to the ocean) under various land uses and management.
Dr. Jennifer Pett-Ridge is a distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Physical and Life Sciences Directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), the Director and Lead Scientist of LLNL Carbon Initiative, Principal Investigator of DOE Soil Microbiome SFA “Microbes Persist “ and DOE Energy Earthshot Research Center “Terraforming Soil”, Adjunct Full Professor in the Life & Environmental Sciences Department at UC Merced, and Investigator at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley. Dr. Pett-Ridge studies the effects of climate change on soil biogeochemistry and environmental microbial communities.
Dr. Bernardo González is a professor of bioengineering at the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile and an expert in environmental microbiology. Dr. González’ research focuses on the beneficial interactions between plants and microbes.
Dr. Jerry Hatfield is a retired Director of the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment in Ames, Iowa. Dr. Hatfield holds a PhD in agricultural climatology from Iowa State University and over 45 years of experience. Dr. Hatfield's research emphasis is on the interactions among the components of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and their linkage to air, water, and soil quality.
These renowned experts will provide critical guidance and oversight, and contribute to the collective expertise in this area of microbially-enhanced weathering for carbon dioxide removal in soils. This is an example of the type of collaboration between industry and academia that is required to tackle the current climate crisis at scale.
About Andes
Andes is a climate tech startup based in Alameda, CA with a passion for leveraging science and technology to stop further escalation of the negative impacts caused by climate change. Through enhancing a natural process, Andes' beneficial microorganisms remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and convert it into minerals in the soil. Andes' microorganisms seamlessly integrate with traditional agricultural practices to pave the way for high permanence, low-cost carbon removals that will lower our planet's atmospheric CO2 at gigatonne scale in years, not decades.
The company has raised a total of $38 million from investors Voyager VC, Yamaha Motor Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, Cavallo Ventures, KdT, Venturance, Germin8, and Accelr8.
For more information, go to https://www.andes.bio/