Lisa Dyson

Lisa Dyson (born 1974) is an American scientist and entrepreneur. She is the CEO of Kiverdi, a biotechnology company that uses natural microbes to transform carbon dioxide and other gases into high-valued oils, nutrients and bio-based products.^[1][2]

Early life and education

Dyson grew up in Southern California.^[3] Dyson completed a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Brandeis University in 1997.^[3] After meeting several physics professors, she became more interested in Quantum Field Theory.^[3] She was a Fulbright Scholar at Imperial College London, where she received a Masters of Science. Dyson earned her PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004, working with Leonard Susskind and on quantum gravity.^[4] Her thesis, "Three lessons in causality : what string theory has to say about naked singularities, time travel and horizon complementarity", used string theory and General Relativity.^[4] She was only the fourth black woman to achieve a PhD in theoretical high energy physics.^[5] She worked Matthew Kleban on the Boltzmann Brain problem.^[6][7][8]

Career

After completing her PhD, Dyson joined University of California, Berkeley.^[6] Dyson worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and Princeton.^[9] She worked as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group between 2004 and 2006.^[10][11] She has worked with the chemical and energy industry.^[12]

In 2008 she founded Kiverdi, a technology company that looks to revolutionise agriculture.^[3][13] Instead of concentrating on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, Kiverdi look to reuse CO₂ into proteins and oils.^[14] She came across the concept when reading NASA papers, where astronauts had used hydrogenotrophs to convert carbon dioxide in exhaled breath into nutrient rich crops.^[15] She started to grow the microbes in her lab, working with manufacturers to scale-up their technology.^[15] They are also interested in alternative fuels and bio-products.^[16] In 2012 she was awarded the Sustainable Biofuels Award for Leader in Bio-based Chemical Industry.^[17] In 2014 she was presented a Clean Energy Education & Empowerment Award.^[9] The company were awarded grants from the United States Department of Energy.^[3] It won a $750,000 grant from the California Energy Commission.^[17] She has several patent applications relating to carbon dioxide fixing chemotropic microorganisms.^[18][19] As of April 2018, Kiverdi's estimated value is $6 million.^[20]

She has delivered several TED talks, including Turning CO2 into Oil and A forgotten Space Age technology could change how we grow food, which has been viewed over one million times.^[21][22] She has spoken extensively about carbon recycling.^[23]

References