Tara Shirvani

Tara Shirvani (born 8 October 1986 in Vienna) is an Austrian biochemist, bioeconomist and expert on climate finance. Her research focuses on climate change, bioeconomy and synthetic biology. She is a co-founder of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group and an affiliate researcher at Georgetown University. In 2016, she was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, won Aviva's Women of the Future Award. and has been recognised as a Global Shaper by the World Economic Forum.

Early life

Tara was born in Vienna with Iranian descent from Tehran and Isfahan, grew up between Austria and Iran and graduated from Wasagasse BG9 in Vienna. In 2006, she completed her Bachelor of Science in International Management at ESCP Business School. She then earned a Master's degree in Engineering for Sustainable Development from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Career

In 2013, she joined the World Bank Group in Washington, D.C. where she was involved in the implementation of the World Bank's Africa Climate Business Plan. This climate change platform promotes low-carbon development by financing 176 projects with a total volume of $17 billion. In 2018, she moved to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London, where she led the advisory work in the field of sustainable infrastructure. Later, she went into the private sector, working for investors such as Autonomy Capital and EQT.

She co-authored the book Energy, Transport, & the Environment: Addressing the Sustainable Mobility Paradigm, which explores the possibility of using biofuels as a viable alternative to fossil fuels. In particular, it emphasises that their sustainability depends on them being obtained from raw materials that are not in direct competition with food or feed production, such as switchgrass or algae. The book is currently used as a textbook in the university of Indonesia.

Research

Tara Shirvani's research focuses on climate finance, bioeconomy and decarbonization, with a particular focus on deep and rapid decarbonization pathways. Her work on biofuels from microalgae investigates a potential alternative to conventional fossil fuel-based liquid transport fuels that can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions – but only if the entire production process is optimized. Through life cycle assessment and the development of a customized Catalyst Selective Index (CSI), she found that while algae-based biodiesel offers the potential to reduce emissions, current production methods are too energy-intensive to be economically viable. To improve economics, she proposed more efficient use of by-products, decarbonization of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emission sources, reuse of wastewater and CO₂ from exhaust gases, and targeted gene editing of the fat content of industrial microalgae to achieve higher productivity levels.

In 2023, she published the book Plastic Eaters and Turbo Trees: How to Save the Climate, Remove all the Trash from the Sea, and Master the Rest with Brilliance, which is based on her research on the application of synthetic biology and its potential for climate change mitigation and adaptation. The book was praised by Ursula von der Leyen and George Church, among others.

Books

*Shirvani, Tara (2023) ''Plastic Eaters and Turbo Trees: How to Save the Climate, Remove all the Trash from the Sea, and Master the Rest with Brilliance.''

*Shirvani Tara (2012). ''Energy, Transport, & the Environment: Addressing the Sustainable Mobility Paradigm.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shirvani, Tara
1986 births
Austrian biochemists
Living people
21st-century Austrian businesspeople
21st-century Austrian businesswomen
People from Vienna
Austrian economists
Austrian women economists