Claire Nelson is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Cella, the first US-based carbon mineralization start-up, and an Adjunct Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. She is a geochemist with expertise in basalt chemical weathering, aqueous geochemistry, and secondary mineral formation. She earned both an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, where her field-based research focused on basalt weathering in Iceland. She then held a position as a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University where she developed a novel injection method to optimize the efficiency of geochemical carbon storage in unconventional reservoirs. She has held roles as a scientific advisor to Carbon Direct and the XPRIZE Foundation, and is currently an Activate Fellow, a globally-renowned entrepreneurial fellowship for scientists.

Cella’s innovations increase scalability, lower costs, and minimize water use compared to other geologic carbon storage methods. The new technology increases safety and permanence of underground carbon storage and unlocks new regions where storage was previously thought to be impossible. Claire and Cella have been featured in Bloomberg, The Weather Channel, Fast Company, The Washington Post, Associated Press, and The Guardian.