The ZeoDAC Team

Christopher W. Jones is the John F. Brock III School Chair and Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has developed DAC technology with several collaborating firms over the last 15 years. He was co-lead of the DAC assessment in the 2019 US National Academies consensus study Negative Emissions Technologies & Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda. He is co-director of the Georgia Tech Direct Air Capture Center (DirACC). His research on DAC has been recognized by awards from the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), most recently with the Institute Award in Industrial Gases Technology. Jones has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Inventors. In independent literature analysis in 2022 identified Jones as the most significant contributor to the scientific and engineering literature on DAC.

Taylor Sulmonetti is a chemical engineer whose areas of expertise include direct air capture (DAC), reaction and chemical process engineering, zeolites, and solid adsorbates. He received his B.S. in 2013 from Lehigh University and his Ph.D. under the advisement of Prof. Jones in 2017 from Georgia Tech; both in chemical engineering. He is a licensed Professional Engineer who has experience in process design, kinetic analysis, and material science for evaluating adsorption and reaction processes. He enjoys soccer as he previously played on the Division I Men’s Soccer Team at Lehigh University.

Mark E. Davis is the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He has been elected to all the US National Academies (Engineering, Sciences, Medicine, and Inventors). In 2014, he received the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research from the King of Spain. He has twice received the Donald W. Breck Award from the International Zeolite Association for the most significant contribution to molecular sieve science and technology within a given period of time. He is the scientific founder of six high technology companies and has been a member of numerous scientific advisory boards. Professor Davis has achieved All American Status for Masters Track and Field in the 400, 200 and 100 Meter Dashes. In 2011, he won the 400 Meter Dash for men of age 55 and older at the Masters World Championship.

Ajay Kshatriya is a Partner at Wilson Hill Ventures. Within the portfolio, he serves as the Executive Chairman of Barrier Biosciences, a biotech creating a new category of medicines using AI and spatial biology, and as a Board Director of Tera AI, a software company activating superhuman reasoning from the complex physical world. Previously, Ajay founded and served as Chief Executive Officer of Biota, the pioneer in environmental genomics, that was acquired by the industrial biotech leader, Novozymes (NZYM). In 8 years, Biota scaled the microbiome data platform from Professor Rob Knight to a genomics diagnostics business that created $400M in economic value and saved 1.2B gallons of water for 20+ industrial companies. Prior to founding Biota, Ajay was at the world-leading biotechnology pioneer Genentech, where he held various positions in product operations, including two product core teams in early-stage oncology. Ajay holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from U.C. Berkeley, an M.S. in engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Berkeley-Haas School of Business. He resides in San Diego with his wife Krista and two children.