Virginia Canestraight

Virginia Canestraight plans to study sustainable electrocatalytic systems to accelerate the decarbonization of carbon intensive chemical syntheses. She will attend Harvard University to pursue a doctorate in materials science and mechanical engineering.

She will receive her bachelor’s in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in spring 2024. There, she studied the effects of mass transport on electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction with Professor Jonas Peters. Combined with her experience in scaling direct ocean capture technology with startup Captura, Canestraight has a strong intuition for the intricate nature of chemical reactions, and the massive scale at which climate solutions must operate.

In her spare time, she enjoys quilting and ballroom dancing. She is originally from Okemos, Michigan.