Antora Insider: A Q&A with Dr. Adrienne Tsier, VP of Systems Engineering

The industrial sector — including hard-to-decarbonize industries like cement, steel, and chemicals — accounts for a staggering 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It will be impossible to meet net zero goals without slashing industrial emissions and, until now, there haven’t been scalable or cost-effective solutions to decarbonize industry. Antora’s thermal battery solves these challenges by delivering zero-emissions heat and electricity that is as reliable as — and cheaper than — fossil fuels.

Behind our groundbreaking technology is a dynamic, world-class team of engineers and leaders. Through this series, we’ll get to know a few of them.

First up, Vice President of Systems Engineering, Dr. Adrienne Tsier. Adrienne is one of the most accomplished mechanical engineers in climate tech. With a track record that includes stops at ARPA-e and Google [X], Adrienne has made a career out of identifying and supporting startups that are developing the next big innovation — a journey that ultimately led Adrienne to join Antora.

Can you tell us a bit about your role at Antora Energy?

Adrienne: In my role, I work on what I refer to as taking technologies “from PowerPoint to power plant.” Essentially, once we have our plans set on paper and all the physical pieces fabricated, my job is to go and figure out how to put it all together and turn it on for the first time. One way I like to describe what I do is in terms of how you might build a laptop: Antora’s thermophotovoltaics (TPV) team makes the microprocessor, and the Systems team that I lead builds the rest of the computer: the keyboard, the mouse, the screen (in our case, thermal storage system with graphite blocks, insulation, and other components). To finish it off, my team is also responsible for turning it on and operating it in a way that is safe and efficient.

What is your professional background? How did you end up in the climate tech space?

Adrienne: Even before I started my undergraduate education, I always wanted to tackle a big world problem. Over time, I gravitated toward the world of energy and climate because it’s connected to so many major issues related to quality of life, equality, poverty, and global political stability. Finding ways to create clean, sustainable energy stood out to me as the most effective way to tackle as many of those issues as possible at the same time.

Academically, I majored in mechanical engineering with a focus on energy systems starting with my undergraduate work at UC Berkeley and later with my PhD at the Sustainable Thermal Systems Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

My first job was with the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), where I worked on projects evaluating disruptive technologies in the areas of advanced nuclear, novel manufacturing, and power plant efficiency optimization. My time in this role gave me a really good overview of the state of the energy technology landscape, including where the startup space was heading. Over the course of my time observing some of the most promising technologies in climate tech, I developed an intuition for what a good technology and a good company looks like. This intuition ultimately drove my desire to join Antora Energy.

What makes you passionate about Antora’s mission and the tech you’re working on?

Adrienne: What excites me about Antora and our mission is the opportunity to build a transformative industrial technology at a meaningful scale within a short timeframe and get it to market within the next couple of years… and to do that with such a high-caliber technical team.

One of our core values is team first. I think that’s something that Antora leadership has really embodied. During my tenure here, it’s been very clear to see that everyone in leadership excels at giving team members the space they need to do what they are excellent at, and at the same time to maintain a reasonable work-life balance. There’s lots of transparency and open decision-making that ensures not only that you can be heard, but also that we are always mapping our work back to our core values, even in the most challenging circumstances.

What do you think makes Antora stand out?

Adrienne: Antora has a lot of features that make the technology we’re working on very likely to succeed in the long term. Our technology is unique in that it is capable of solving both the zero-carbon heat and zero-carbon power supply challenges in the industrial sector. A lot of companies get tripped up relying too much on old technology. Antora’s TPV tech is uniquely exciting in that it is on track to becoming a new class of technology that drives the future of our energy system.

What do you hope will be the legacy of the work you are doing at Antora?

Adrienne: I tend to think about the long-term impact of my work — how it is shaping the future of our company, the technology itself, and the world it will fit into. One thing I am particularly excited about is collecting my experiences from the implementation of early-stage technologies, and using that to create a how-to guide for building first-of-a-kind power plants — a “Building Power Plants for Dummies,” so to speak. Given that most technologies and startups fail at the implementation stage (commonly referred to as the “valley of death”), developing this how-to guide could help increase the success rate of new products in the energy industry and have a massive impact across the sector.

What advice do you have for someone looking to build a career in climate tech?

Adrienne: One of the best things you can do for your career is to seek out opportunities to grow and learn. So, when you’re looking for a job, take something that you’re only 60% to 80% qualified for so you can grow into the new role.

I’d also say don’t overlook the importance of developing soft skills like project management, public speaking, pitching, and team-building. The combination of these skills with hard technical skills makes for a killer combination, and usually is what makes the most effective team member in impactful innovation environments like startups.

What’s a fun fact about yourself?

Adrienne: I live in an intentional living community with 15 other people — all of whom are, at their core, nerdy and passionate about all things climate, tech, and innovation. We are an incredibly tight-knit group that survived the pandemic together and bonded over constant collaboration, debate, learning, networking, and moral support. But it’s not all serious business: we’re a close group of friends that regularly shares meals, holds events like open-mic nights and tech talks, and throws pretty good parties — there’s always something exciting happening at our house.

Interested in working with people like Adrienne and joining Antora’s mission? Check out our current openings to join us as we work towards decarbonizing industry and stopping climate change.