Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability


Showing 1-10 of 12 Results

  • Jeffrey Brown

    Jeffrey Brown

    Managing Director, Sustainability Accelerator

    Current Role at StanfordManaging Director Sustainability Accelerator
    Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability

  • Andrea Gray

    Andrea Gray

    Director of Finance and Operations, Sustainability Accelerator

    BioAndrea joined the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability in 2023 from Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), where she had been the Associate Director for Administration and Finance since 2017. Andrea started her career at Stanford in 2012 as a director at the Graduate School of Business, responsible for delivering innovation and entrepreneurship programs internationally. In 2015, she moved to the School of Medicine as an internal consultant, supporting leadership at the School and two hospitals across a portfolio of initiatives in the areas of international strategy, graduate medical education, clinical expansion, and faculty affairs. Prior to Stanford, Andrea managed a product line at a Fortune 500 company, helped lead a technology startup from conception to acquisition, worked as a strategy consultant, played a leadership role at a grassroots environmental non-profit, and directed an educational foundation. Andrea holds a bachelor's degree from Queen's University in Canada.

  • Gemma Guilera Ferre

    Gemma Guilera Ferre

    Managing Director, Sustainability Accelerator

    BioDr. Gemma Guilera is a chemist, an entrepreneur and an enabler of innovation. She currently serves as a Managing Director at the Sustainability Accelerator within the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.

    Prior to joining the Accelerator, Guilera was Senior Manager at Plug and Play tech Center, an innovation platform and early-stage startup investment firm in Silicon Valley. Specializing in sustainable materials and packaging, she facilitated relationships between corporations seeking innovative solutions and the dynamic startup network at Plug and Play. Earlier to this role, Guilera was co-founder and CEO of Moving Beans, a venture backed-up sustainable startup developing more environmentally friendly, home-compostable materials for consumer goods.

    During her time in the UK, Guilera was part of the original team that implemented the human-centered, solution-led Accelerator for Cities at Connected Places Catapult, where she led the startup team. The team provided support to startups in their growth journey through strategic multi-stakeholder engagement and accelerator programs. She also developed and led the open call for one of the largest large-scale IoT demonstrators globally, now the EU standard for innovative open calls.

    Prior to her work in innovation, Guilera built the X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy Beamline at ALBA Synchrotron (Spain), overseeing its construction and operation and conducting research in various areas such as catalysis and nanomaterials. Her career began as an industrial post-doc, followed by her role as a scientist at the ESRF (European Synchrotron Radiation Facility), where she worked in the field of heterogeneous catalysis and collaborated with Toyota to co-develop a three-way catalyst for petrol cars.

    Gemma holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona, as well as an MSc in Supramolecular Chemistry and a PhD in Organometallic Chemistry from King’s College London. She was selected as one of the finalists in Women in Tech Global Awards 2021.

  • Isik C Kizilyalli

    Isik C Kizilyalli

    Senior Director of Technology (R&D), Sustainability Accelerator

    BioDr. Isik C. Kizilyalli currently serves as the Senior Director of Technology (R&D) Sustainability Accelerator within the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. In his new role, Kizilyalli brings a wealth of research and management experience working in technology R&D in both the public and private sectors.

    Most recently, Kizilyalli served as the Associate Director for Technology at the Advanced Research Projects Agency at the Department of Energy (ARPA-E). At the elite moonshot funding organization, he oversaw and coordinated program development and management of early-stage, high-impact energy technology solutions across all mission areas of the agency. Furthermore, he personally directed projects that covered semiconductor devices; power electronics and power systems; electric distribution and transmission grids; grid resiliency against aging, EMP, space weather, natural disaster, and cyber threats; technologies aiding to decommission abandoned subsea and on-land oil, gas, and coal assets; subsurface instrumentation including advanced drilling concepts that enable enhanced geothermal systems; and electrification of aviation and the development of regional airports.

    Now at Stanford, he aims to apply that same active program management methodology to Accelerator projects and programs on campus with hands-on support and engagement. He will contribute to the Sustainability Accelerator facilitating Stanford researchers to develop scalable sustainability solutions with global impact in collaboration with international resources.

    Before joining ARPA-E, Kizilyalli served as founder and CEO/CTO of Avogy Inc. and Zolt Inc., venture backed start-ups focused on a new class of GaN power semiconductor switches and efficient and compact power converters. At the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Zolt Inc. was a CES Best of Innovation Awards Honoree, Best Startup CES finalist (by Engadget), a Top Tech of CES nominee (by Digital Trends), and a Top Pick CES (by Laptop Magazine).

    Previously, at AT&T Bell Laboratories and its spinouts, he is credited with the development of four generations of CMOS transistors for integrated circuits, the discovery of the hydrogen/deuterium isotope effect in hot electron related device degradation, modeling, and reliability studies. Later, he served as the technical manager for the development of InP-based optoelectronics (detectors and high-speed electronics) technologies and RF LDMOS devices for base station communications. This was followed by a senior management role at Nitronex Corporation and a technical founder position at solar PV startup Alta Devices, where his team still holds the world record for single junction solar cell conversion efficiency.

    Kizilyalli was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2007 for his contributions to "Integrated Circuit Technology". He also received the Bell Laboratories’ Distinguished Member of Technical Staff award and the Best Paper Award at the International Symposium on Power Semiconductors and Integrated Circuits (ISPSD) in 2013. Kizilyalli holds his B.S. in Electrical Engineering, M.S. in Metallurgy, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering all from the University of Illinois (Urbana). He has published a Springer-Nature book titled "Direct Current Fault Protection" and has two more books under contract with Springer Nature titled “Wide Bandgap Power Electronics: Emerging Converter Technologies and Applications” and “Gallium Nitride and Related Materials: Device Processing and Materials Characterization for Power Electronics Applications.” Dr. Kizilyalli has published more than 100 papers and holds 127 issued U.S. patents.