Science Founders is a 501(c)3 registered non-profit community creating a collaborative space for founders, scientists, and advisors. The Science Founders Slack & Website serve as a central repository for founder guides, links to funding opportunities & capital sources, curated lists of commonly needed services, tools, and documents for starting up a science-based venture.
Science Founders was started to provide a founder resource and peer-mentor support community freely accessible and open to founders abiding by principles of the community. Rules for joining the community are on the principles page.
The Board is composed of members of the Science Founders volunteer community who meet quarterly providing governance oversight as a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit organization.
Evan Taylor has been a serial climate founder and scientist focused on environmental biotechnology and decarbonization. He's been a Co-Investigator on over $15,000,000 of U.S. Department of Energy awards across 9+ SBIRs, and multiple EERE or BETO awards in collaboration with multiple national labs as a Visting Scholar at the Arizona Center for Algae Technology & Innovation. He serves on the U.C. Davis Venture Catalyst Climate Advisory Group Board and mentors startups through Climate Haven and the EForum.
He holds a BS in Sustainability and an MS in Environmental from Arizona State University.
Mariela Alfonzo is a scientist and climate founder focusing on quantifying social, health, environmental, and economic value of urban design and sustainability. She's won prestigious scholarships, numerous grant awards and been recognized as one of Urban Land Institute's 40 under 40, and is a Research Assistant Professor at NYU.
She holds BAs in Psychology and Architecture from the University of Miami and PhD Urban Planning and Design from University of California Irvine.
Jimmy Jia has been an energy founder turned climate investor and corporate strategist. Currently, he is a Venture Partner Advisor at PiLabs, sits on the board for the Center for Sustainable Energy and is a Visiting Scholar at George Washington University. He acts as the Treasurer and Secretary of Science Founders.
He holds BS and MS degrees in Materials Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MBA and D. Phil in Sustainable Finance (Est. 2025) from the University of Oxford.
Jonathan Levine is a climate scientist and cleantech founder with experience in advanced materials, water, and carbon capture and storage. He has been a judge and mentor at various cleantech accelerators or awards including MIT's Water, Food, & Ag Prize, Nexus Global, and CleanTech Open among others.
He holds a BS in History in Mathematics, MS & PhD in Earth & Environmental Engineering from Columbia University.
Phillip Risser has been a serial climate entrepreneur and founder with Founder or Director-level experience in industrial scale-up of bioreactor technology, waste upcycling, and algae biofertilizer production. Phil has been a subawardee on multiple U.S. Department of Energy SBIR and Research Grants developing opensource tools for bioscience labs.
He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University.
