Etosha R. Cave is an American
mechanical engineer based in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
. She is the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of
Twelve, a startup that recycles
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
.
Early life and education
Cave grew up in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, where she became interested in recycling oil and gas. During high school she joined the
National Society of Black Engineers
The National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) is a society that was founded in 1975 at Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. It is one of the largest student-run organizations in the United States, with core activities centered o ...
(NSBE).
She studied at
Olin College
Olin College of Engineering, officially Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, is a private college focused on engineering and located in Needham, Massachusetts. Olin College is noted in the engineering community for its relatively recent fou ...
, and was in the first graduating year in 2006. She held a
NSBE Scholarship. After graduating, she worked at the
McMurdo Station
McMurdo Station is a United States Antarctic research station on the south tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the Unit ...
, where she serviced
HVAC
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HV ...
systems and built the
laser diode
file:Laser diode chip.jpg, The laser diode chip removed and placed on the eye of a needle for scale
A laser diode (LD, also injection laser diode or ILD, or diode laser) is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a di ...
for future
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
missions. Eventually Cave returned to her studies, and started a doctoral program at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
working under the supervision of
Thomas F. Jaramillo. During her PhD she worked on electrochemical approaches that could be used to convert
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
and water into useful plastics and household cleaners. She built a gas analysis system that could determine the composition of
electrochemical reactions in realtime and earned her PhD in 2015.
Research and career
While at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, Cave co-founded
Twelve, a startup that uses metal catalysts to recycle carbon dioxide. At first,
Twelve struggled to raise money from the
venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
ists in
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
.
Today
Twelve is based at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), commonly referred to as the Berkeley Lab, is a United States Department of Energy National Labs, United States national laboratory that is owned by, and conducts scientific research on behalf of, t ...
, and has secured several academic partnerships including funding from the
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
and
I-Corps program.
Cave ultimately hopes that they will be able to make
diesel fuel
Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...
from recycled
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
and water.
Cave discussed the idea at
TED
TED may refer to:
Economics and finance
* TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar
Education
* ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association
** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey
** Transvaal Education Depa ...
x Stanford, where she explained the recycled carbon dioxide could reduce our carbon footprint as well as supporting future space travel.
Twelve was awarded the
Forbes magazine Change the World Award and was selected for the
Advanced Manufacturing Office Cyclotron Road program in 2016. She was a finalist for the Carbon
Xprize in 2018.
Awards and honours
Her awards and honours include;
* 2016
Echoing Green Fellow
* 2017
7x7's ''Hot 20'' Perennial Bay Area Innovators
* 2017
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
Innovators to Watch
* 2018
Grist Top 508
* 2018
Vanity Fair 26 Women of Color Diversifying Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, Media, and Beyond
She has spoken at the
Aspen Ideas Festival
Founded in 2005, the Aspen Ideas Festival (AIF) is a week-long event held in Aspen, Colorado in the United States. The Aspen Ideas Festival program of events includes discussions, seminars, panels, and tutorials from journalists, designers, innova ...
and been part of
Science Foo Camp
Science Foo Camp (scifoo) is an annual of interdisciplinary scientific unconferences organized by O'Reilly Media, Digital Science, Alphabet Inc., based on an idea from Linda Stone. The event is based on the spirit and format of Foo Camp, an ev ...
. She is a member of the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers
The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) is a professional organization for chemical engineers. AIChE was actually established in 1908 to distinguish chemical engineers as a profession independent of chemists and mechanical engineer ...
. Cave is a member of the advisory board of the
Berkeley Startup Cluster.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cave, Etosha
African-American inventors
Stanford University alumni
Olin College alumni
American chemical engineers
American women engineers
21st-century American inventors
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
21st-century African-American people
21st-century African-American women