David Soane

Founder and Chairman, Transform Materials LLC

David Soane is a serial entrepreneur in the fields of advanced materials, surface science, nanotechnology, and plasma reaction engineering. Prior to founding several successful high-technology start-ups across multiple industries, he served as a tenured Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley for 15 years and authored hundreds of research articles. His most recent company, Transform Materials (TM), converts natural gas into green hydrogen and acetylene sustainably, selectively, and quantitatively. A high-value and versatile chemical precursor, acetylene is the critical reactant leading to several important polymers, conductive carbon black, graphene, vitamins, and fragrances. The novel process developed by TM has rapidly evolved from ideation to laboratory prototype, pilot plant, and finally to a full-scale system. Notable for their compact and modular design, TM plants allow distributed manufacturing and localized demand matching, greatly simplifying transportation logistics and enabling efficient market-driven capacity increases.