The Board is composed of members of the Science Founders volunteer community who meet quarterly providing governance oversight as a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit organization.
President: Evan Taylor
Evan Taylor has been a serial climate founder and scientist focused on environmental biotechnology and decarbonization. He's been a Co-Investigator on over $30M of non-dilutive funding awarded across EERE, BETO, ARPA-E, and SBIR programs at DOE, DOT, and USDA over the last 8 years — including $11M+ in SBIRs, $18M+ in TRL 6–8+ R&D awards, and $3.3M in ARPA-E across 11+ awarded SBIR proposals from three teams and technologies, with a 75%+ DOE success rate as co-investigator and commercialization lead. He has worked in collaboration with multiple national labs as a Visiting Scholar at the Arizona Center for Algae Technology & Innovation, serves on the U.C. Davis Venture Catalyst Climate Advisory Group Board, and mentors startups through Climate Haven and the EForum.
He holds a B.S. in Sustainability and an M.S. Environmental Engineering from Arizona State University.
Dr. Mariela Alfonzo
Mariela Alfonzo is a scientist and climate founder focusing on quantifying social, health, environmental, and economic value of urban design and sustainability. She's won prestigious scholarships, numerous grant awards and been recognized as one of Urban Land Institute's 40 under 40, and is a Research Assistant Professor at NYU.
She holds BAs in Psychology and Architecture from the University of Miami and PhD Urban Planning and Design from University of California Irvine.
Dr. Jimmy Jia
Jimmy Jia has been an energy founder turned climate investor and corporate strategist. Currently, he is a Venture Partner Advisor at PiLabs, sits on the board for the Center for Sustainable Energy and is a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University. He acts as the Treasurer and Secretary of Science Founders.
He holds BS and MS degrees in Materials Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MBA and D. Phil in Sustainable Finance from the University of Oxford.
Dr. Jonathan Levine
Jonathan Levine is a climate scientist and cleantech founder with experience in advanced materials, water, and carbon capture and storage. He has been a judge and mentor at various cleantech accelerators or awards including MIT's Water, Food, & Ag Prize, Nexus Global, and CleanTech Open among others.
He holds a BS in History and Mathematics, MS & PhD in Earth & Environmental Engineering from Columbia University.
Philip Risser
Phillip Risser has been a serial climate entrepreneur and founder with Founder or Director-level experience in industrial scale-up of bioreactor technology, waste upcycling, and algae biofertilizer production. Phil has been a subawardee on multiple U.S. Department of Energy SBIR and Research Grants developing open-source tools for bioscience labs.
He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University.