I had the pleasure of meeting LanzaTech’s Chief Science Officer Dr. Zara Summers when I was at EarthX. We were both presenters at the Women’s Earth Summit and she had me enraptured with the cool innovations she is leading for her company. Basically, she had me at the Athleta pants made with recycled carbon.
Prior to Lanza, Zara spent almost 10 years at ExxonMobil where she held a variety of scientific and leadership positions, all focused on helping to provide biological solutions for navigating the energy transition. Most recently, she worked to drive the development of a corporate research strategy on Nature Based Solutions and worked to understand the impacts of subsurface microorganisms on underground CO2 sequestration. Throughout her career, Zara has been most energized by working to identify solutions to enhance economic, environmental, and climate stability. At LanzaTech, Zara leads the passionate and innovative Science team, combining biology and engineering to tackle carbon transformation. The Science team works to provide solutions to address society’s challenge of mitigating climate change while providing the world the energy and products required to not only survive, but thrive.
Zara holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts and completed her postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota.
I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I had talking to her.