Dr. Cyrus Wadia is the CEO of Activate,[1] a non-profit organization that provides fellowships and related services to scientists and engineers to commercialize their research projects.[2][3]
Wadia served as the Vice President of Business Innovation at Nike, where he oversaw the company's sustainable innovation efforts.[4][2] He then served as Director of Worldwide Product Sustainability at Amazon, where he launched Amazon's Climate Pledge Friendly badging program. As part of this initiative, he introduced Aware, a line of Amazon products certified as sustainable by third-party organizations.[5] Additionally, Wadia held a dual appointment at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory[6] and the Haas School of Business, where he co-directed Clean Tech to Market and worked as a guest scientist.[7][8]
In 2010, Wadia was appointed as a science advisor to the Obama administration. He worked on initiatives aligned with President Obama’s objective to make solar energy economically viable globally.[9] He became the Assistant Director of Clean Energy and Materials R&D at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, serving until 2015.[2] He was involved in the launch of the Materials Genome Initiative, a federal multi-agency program aimed at advancing materials innovation, manufacturing, and collaboration.[10][11]
At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Wadia researched the use of abundant materials to synthesize nanocrystals for cost-effective photovoltaics. He then created new solar cell devices that were more cost-effective than conventional silicon-based solar cells.[12]
In 2009, MIT Technology Review included Wadia in its list of Top Innovators under 35 for his work on solar-cell materials.[9] The Review mentioned his analysis of materials with favorable electrical properties and sunlight absorption, highlighting iron pyrite and copper sulfide.[13] Also in 2009, Wadia delivered a talk titled "How to Bring Solar Energy to Seven Billion People" at an event hosted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[12]
Among his published papers,[14] Wadia authored "Materials Availability Expands the Opportunity for Large-Scale Photovoltaics Deployment," a roadmap of low-cost alternatives to conventional materials used in solar cells, for the American Chemical Society publication Environmental Science & Technology in 2009.[15]
In 2013, Wadia received U.S. Patent 8,425,865 for a method of synthesizing pyrite nanocrystals as a potential photovoltaic material.[16]
Wadia holds a Ph.D. in Energy & Resources from U.C. Berkeley,[9] and holds both an M.S. and S.B. in Chemical Engineering from MIT.[17]
Wadia has published 21 peer-reviewed papers.[14]