Adam is the co-inventor of ChemFinity’s foundational tech, blending his fascination for materials chemistry with his expertise in chemical separations. He has served as a Principal Investigator on >10 grants and led projects building hardware across four continents to efficiently recover resources from wastes, such as gold, water, and chemical commodities. Adam earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering (summa cum laude) with three minors from Penn State University and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, supported by NSF, AIChE, NAMS, AWWA, and Philomathia fellowships. He is a Breakthrough Energy Fellow and Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.
Ever is a co-inventor of ChemFinity’s foundational technology, leading the technology and scale-up developments from the laboratory toward industrial deployment. He is driven by curiosity and purpose to translate cutting-edge research into transformative solutions that advance resource recovery. Ever earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Florida State University, graduating summa cum laude with honors in the major. As an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, he completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, where he specialized in the design and development of new materials for molecular separations that offer significant enhancements in energy efficiency and performance. These new materials included plasticization-resistant membranes, porous inorganic materials, porous polymers, phase-change adsorbents, and metal–organic frameworks. He is a Breakthrough Energy Fellow and a Newlab fellow.
Alyssa is a process engineer at ChemFinity, leading different parts of the development and testing of ChemFinity’s highly selective separation prototypes. She was previously a semiconductor engineer at IBM and a chemical engineer at Amogy. As Amogy’s first employee, Alyssa wore many hats and contributed to several successful demonstrations of their technology, which utilizes ammonia as an energy source. She is highly interested in tackling environmental and climate concerns. Alyssa earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Carolina.
Zoran is Lead Hydrometallurgist at ChemFinity and brings more than 25 years of industrial experience in mining and metals at companies such as Albemarle and Ascend Elements. His work spans the extraction of metals, including nickel, cobalt, copper, gold, lithium, and rare earth elements from both primary and secondary resources. His expertise covers a wide range of hydrometallurgical unit operations, including leaching, solid–liquid separation, precipitation, solvent extraction, ion exchange, and adsorption. Zoran holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto, with a research focus on the pressure acid leaching of nickel laterites. He is passionate about advancing novel technologies for the sustainable extraction of critical metals.
Will is an Operations Specialist at ChemFinity and brings a unique background working in advanced materials startups across technical, administrative, and strategic roles. Formerly a laboratory technician at Wildcat Discovery Technologies and technical program manager at Ion Storage Systems, Will has experience contributing to many areas within early-stage deep tech companies, including lab operations, project management, IP protection, and securing government funding to help accelerate climate technologies from lab to pilot scale. Will earned his B.S in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Maryland.
Drew Barber is a Senior Process Engineer at ChemFinity focused on scale-up and deployment of critical mineral systems. He brings 5 years of experience designing and operating modular pilot projects across Europe and South America as a process engineer at Lilac Solutions, with expertise in reactor design, separations, solids handling, and automation. Drew holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and is passionate about building practical, sustainable technology.
Shivani leads our core R&D efforts, driving the development of novel sorbent technologies and their scale-up to pilot level. She holds a BS from the University of Delhi and an integrated MS–PhD from IISER Pune, supported by a CSIR Fellowship. During her doctoral research, she discovered a passion for designing atomically tailored networks and applying them to sustainability challenges. In her postdoctoral work at the University of Cambridge and the University of California, Berkeley, supported by a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Fellowship, she extended this expertise to challenges including direct air capture of carbon dioxide and the capture of critical metal ions.
Yana is an undergraduate at Yale University pursuing a degree in chemical engineering, with a strong interest in climate technology and entrepreneurship. Their experience spans research and development, lab-to-market scaling, and emerging energy technologies. They have conducted plasma research at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory and contributed to CO₂ conversion research in Professor Lea Winter’s lab at Yale. In addition, Yana has engineering experience in green hydrogen systems and 3D-printed materials development at previous startups and is passionate about advancing novel technologies that can drive meaningful environmental impact. They are particularly interested in bridging scientific innovation with scalable commercial applications to accelerate the transition toward a more sustainable future.
Dan Russell is Head of Strategy at ChemFinity, bringing over 40 years of technical and operational leadership experience spanning Fortune 100 companies and deep tech startups. His work has focused on scaling advanced manufacturing in the energy and materials sectors, including serving as Chief Operating Officer at the critical minerals recycling startup Ascend Elements, where he led global capacity expansion efforts that contributed to the company’s growth from a $20M to a $1.6B valuation in four years. He previously held executive roles in the EV battery, opto-electronic materials, and solar industries, including Vice President of International Operations at Evergreen Solar, where he oversaw the establishment of fully integrated photovoltaic manufacturing facilities across the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Jeffrey R. Long is the C. Judson King Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and a Faculty Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His research involves the synthesis and physical characterization of new materials with potential applications in sustainable energy and environmental remediation, and his over 400 publications have received more than 100,000 citations.
Peter S. Fiske is the Founder and Executive Director of the National Alliance for Water Innovation (NAWI), the U.S. DOE’s $110M Energy-Water Innovation Hub. He is also the Director of the Water-Energy Resilience Research Institute (WERRI) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Peter was previously the CEO of PAX Water Technologies, Inc. (acquired by UGSI Inc.), which pioneered the use of biomimicry to develop energy-efficient technologies for the water industry, and the co-founder of RAPT Industries, Inc., leading their first technology negotiations and sales.
Steve Gluck is Senior Technical Advisor at ChemFinity and an independent consultant with 40 years of research experience in analytical chemistry and water technology assessment. His work spans the full spectrum of water and wastewater treatment, and he has served as a technical or board advisor to more than nine companies in the sector, in addition to Bluetech Research and the Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute. A frequent speaker at international water treatment conferences, he holds multiple patents and publications. Steve earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Leipzig and resides in Kerrville, Texas.
