Meenakshi Choudhary, PH.D.
With a strong interest to work towards clean water in India and globally, Dr. Choudahary obtained her PhD in the Cyanobacterial and Environmental Biotechnology Lab, Department of Biosciences at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India. The primary focus of her work has been to define ways which algae cells absorb heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, zinc, and chromium. She has published a number of scientific papers on using cyanobacteria for the removal of toxic heavy metals in wastewater environments.
patrik D'haeseleer, PH.D.
Drawn by the unique challenges of the Salton Sea, Dr. D’haeseleer is interested in studying the extremophiles who live in its saltier than sea water environment. Extremophiles are organisms that live and thrive in environments that most other life would not.
Patrik D’haeseleer is a research scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Joint BioEnergy Institute, working on systems biology of bacterial pathogens and biomass degrading microbial communities. A passionate interdisciplinarian, he has graduate degrees in electrical engineering from Belgium, a Masters in computer science from Stanford, a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of New Mexico, and did a postdoc with George Church at Harvard Medical School. He has authored three patents and more than 40 peer- reviewed research articles in top-ranking journals, including Science, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Foundation History
- Sept 2012 - Cameron visits the Salton Sea for the first time in 2 decades.
- Dec 2012 - Meeting with the Imperial County
Supervisors and Economic Development Corp. - 2013 - BNF commences operation. Clearlam, Pro Bono Partnership join the effort. Jack Giraudo joins the board.
Jack Giraudo
Currently Senior Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer of Tessera Technologies, Inc.(San Jose, CA). Tessera develops, invests in, licenses, and delivers innovative miniaturization technologies and products for next-generation electronic devices. Previously he was Chairman, Founder and a Director of Sonnedix, an independent solar power producer. He was also President of AES Solar BV, an alternative energy subsidiary of The AES Corporation, a publicly traded global power company. He was Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer at AES Corpoation.
Jack clerked for Judge Alfred T. Goodwin in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals following law school. In the Reagan Administration, he was an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel and was special assistant and chief of staff to the United States Secretary of Labor. He was General Counsel of Sithe Asia Holdings (Hong Kong), Senior Project Finance Lawyer with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (Washington D.C., Beijing, Hong Kong) and a securities lawyer with Davis, Polk and Wardwell (New York).
Jack is often called upon to address various industry groups on topics ranging from alternative energy, solar power, business ethics, and corporate governance. He is a 1998 Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.
He graduated summa cum laude with a BA in economics and political science from U.C. Berkeley, received a B.Phil. in political theory from Oxford University and a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.
Brian Goodall, Ph.D.
Dr. Goodall is a prolific inventor and innovator with almost 90 allowed patents to his name, ranging from catalysts to polymers, from electronic materials to renewable fuels. Commercial products arising from his inventions include the catalyst and process technology used to make a third of the world’s polypropylene and electronic materials such as photoresists, waveguides and encapsulants that are used in the microelectronics which have changed our lives.
In recent years Dr. Goodall has turned his focus to sustainable chemistry, renewable fuels and microalgae. He initiated and championed the program that resulted in the algae-derived jet fuel used on the first U.S. flight on renewable jet fuel (Continental Airlines, January 7 2009). Currently Dr. Goodall is involved in microalgae programs aimed at nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals and nutrition and his experience in the algae space covers the whole value chain from cultivation and harvesting to extraction, fractionation and delivery of final consumer products.
The Blue Nomad Foundation (BNF) is a California-based non-profit organization passionate about environmental consciousness, advancing scientific research, and developing innovative economically sustainable technologies to help face the important challenges facing the planet.
About Us
Algae for Bioremediation and Biopolymers
CAMERON CLARKE
A Southern California native raised in the Coachella Valley, Mr. Clarke’s current efforts are focused on developing open source technologies for algae-based bioremediation and genetic engineering. He recently visited the Salton Sea for the first time in 20 years, and was struck by the dramatic ecological and economic decline of the area.
He is a serial entrepreneur with a track record of transforming technical innovation into high impact applications. In 1994 he co-founded Visionary Information Systems Inc. VISI launched the modern electronic courtroom and changed the way attorneys litigate. In 2000 he founded Vodium, an internet-based video streaming, content management system with customers in government, healthcare, and financial services. His other ventures include Amazon-Mania USA, one of the original importers of Acai berry products from Brazil, and Delphi International Ent., an international steel trading firm.
He is a graduate of Stanford University and an active member of BioCurious, a community synthetic biology lab in the Silicon Valley, where he leads the algae research team.
Ilana Aldor, PH.D.
A self-confessed microphile, Dr. Aldor loves exploring the diversity of bacteria and algae, including the organisms she encounters hiking in the diverse ecosystems of the San Francisco Bay Area where she resides. She is interested in bioremediation as a way of dealing with environmental pollution.
Ilana Aldor brings a decade of industry experience in fermentation science, working with bioreactors and process analytical technology (PAT). Her postdoctoral work at Genentech involved researching the proteome of E. coli in high cell density fermentations. She has also work for Eli Lilly, and biotechnology companies Genecor and Codexis. Dr. Aldor completed her Ph.D. under Professor Jay Keasling in his synthetic biology lab at the University of California, Berkeley. Her expertise includes microbial physiology, with her thesis work in metabolic engineering microbes for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate biodegradable plastic. Her undergraduate education was in chemical engineering at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Our Team
MICHAEL BECKER
A long-time advocate of environmental conservation with interests in novel approaches to bioremediation, Mr. Becker supports the goal of enabling technologies and research developed by Blue Nomad Foundation to be available one day for communities, companies, and governments around the world.
Michael Becker currently serves as CEO of GeoSure Global LLC, a NYC based worldwide travel information firm. He founded Broadsword Partners, LLC, a New York City based merchant banking and strategic consulting firm. Prior he was a Senior Vice President at Dillon, Read & Co. An experienced entrepreneur, investor and manager, he advises business executives from start-ups to established organizations on a broad range of strategic matters. His extensive financial, investment, and business development experience has served high growth companies across several industries.
Mr. Becker has served on various corporate and non-profit boards. Currently he is on the board of the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester.
He is a graduate of Columbia Business School, a member of the Columbia Business School Hermes Society Leadership Committee, the Economic Club of New York, and several industry associations.
Lisa kressbach
Believing in the power of philanthropy to advance science, Lisa Kressbach sees the Blue Nomad Foundation as a catalyst for marshaling support of leading edge research critical to developing effective solutions to global environmental challenges.
For more than 20 years, Ms. Kressbach has been dedicated to helping non-profit institutions achieve their missions. Since 1998, she has worked with scientists at The Rockefeller University to raise private support for research and graduate education in the biological sciences. As Senior Director of the RU Council Initiative, she is responsible for engaging University benefactors in annual, capital, and endowment campaigns, and for overseeing outreach and programming.
Prior to joining Rockefeller, Ms. Kressbach coordinated fundraising programs for the American Academy in Rome, an overseas center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and the humanities. She began her career in Washington, DC, representing the interests of non-profit performing, exhibiting, and presenting arts organizations before Congress and the federal government. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she has provided pro bono counsel to various local, regional, and international organizations.
To foster scientific research and develop environmentally and economically sustainable technologies that use algae biomass to bioremediate polluted water, manufacture biodegradablebiopolymers and other high value algae derivatives.
REBECCA BRASLAU, PH.d.
Dr. Rebecca Braslau is Professor of Chemistry at the University of California Santa Cruz, where she has been on the faculty since 1991. Her research focus is Synthetic Radical Chemistry, including the use of controlled polymerization for preparation of designed materials for nanotechnological applications and novel polymers. Her work has been instrumental in the development of new synthetic methodologies, in the synthesis of nitroxide radicals, nitroxide-mediated free radical polymerization, profluorescent nitroxides as chemical sensors and non-migratory plasticizers. With a great personal interest to rid the world of the damaging effects of petroleum-based plastics containing toxic phthalate plasticizers, Dr. Braslau's recent work focuses on the development of new polymeric plasticizers which are covalently attached to the material, preventing leaching into food and the environment. Dr. Braslau has served as a Visiting Professor at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne, Australia as well as at the Dutch Polymer Institute at the Technical University of Eindhoven, Netherlands. She received her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Blue Nomad Foundation
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