Paul Bryan is an expert in process engineering, including design and process technology development. His work in industry has focused on petrochemicals, refining, and upstream oil & gas  for the first half and biofuels/biochemicals for the second half. He has worked for Chevron, Union Carbide, and as an independent consultant. Most recently he was a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, serving as Biomass Program Manager. Paul has also had extensive work with universities (teaching at UC-Berkeley, MIT, and the Colorado School of Mines), along with working for the U.S. Department of Energy as Biomass Program Manager and peer reviewer for DOE programs. Paul received his BS degree in chemical engineering from Penn State, a PhD in chemical engineering from UC-Berkeley, and did post-doctoral work at MINES ParisTech

Steve Sciamanna is an expert in process engineering and product development. He teaches in the Product Development Masters Program in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UC-Berkeley. Previously he had an extensive career at Chevron. He managed a Chevron analytical lab-service group; developed and commercialized internal and external technologies; assessed international upstream facilities for acquisition; managed and grew the process engineering group for Tengizchevroil in Tengiz, Kazakhstan; took a Russian-developed crude oil treating process from concept-to commercialization (320,000 BPD) in 22 months; supported many small and large capital projects; and conducted separations science and engineering R&D in the areas of minerals, environmental and gas processing. Steve received his BS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from UC-Berkeley and an MS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Dave Youmans’ career has been spent on the forefront of new technologies including clean tech (solar, wind, biofuels, hydrogen, etc.), wearable technology, and robotics. He has designed products that have shipped in the millions, deployed high-precision automation, built automated factories, guided investment decisions, and led teams to develop novel robots. He has lived and breathed many of the roles in hardware development including: design engineer, automation engineer, manufacturing engineer, product manager, technical program manager design team lead, manufacturing team lead, and CTO. Dave’s superpowers are bringing clarity to complex, ambiguous problems and creative design and problem solving. He received his BS in mechanical engineering from the University of California-San Diego.

Babak Fayyaz-Najafi is a chemical engineer with substantial expertise in process engineering, technology development, and GHG Management.  Before joining Decarbonize in 2024, Babak worked at Chevron for 19 years. Babak is a collaborative problem solver dedicated to driving sustainable innovation and reducing carbon footprints through the adoption of renewable energy and advanced technology development. With a solid track record in assessing advanced technologies, conducting life cycle assessments, and performing techno-economic analysis, Babak empowers organizations to achieve their sustainability goals and navigate the transition to a low-carbon future. His expertise spans decarbonization, low-carbon energy technologies like hydrogen and CCUS, advanced separation technologies, flaring reduction, and process engineering. Babak received his BS and MS degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Tehran and his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Southern California (USC).