Dr. Yumin Tao is the Chief Science Officer at Living Carbon PBC, where he leads efforts to harness the power of biotechnology to combat climate change. With over 20 years of experience in synthetic biology, Yumin is driven by a deep commitment to solving some of the world's most pressing challenges, including hunger, health, and environmental sustainability. Yumin earned his PhD in plant molecular biology from Purdue University and spent nearly two decades at DuPont Pioneer, where he served as a project leader in a variety of cutting-edge fields, including gene editing, herbicide trait discovery, enzyme engineering, and early product management. Yumin then served as the Research Director of Protein Engineering at Antheia where he helped the company advance the mission to provide access to high-value pharmaceutical compounds, benefiting global health. At Living Carbon, he is applying synthetic biology to engineer plant-based solutions that enhance atmospheric carbon drawdown, contributing to global climate change mitigation efforts. His work focuses on the development of high-biomass, fast-growing plant systems optimized for applications such as bioenergy, advanced biofuels, biochar, and timber wood production, as well as the generation of high-quality carbon credits to offset emissions associated with customers’ growth.

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