Rawand Rasheed is a Ph.D. candidate and a research fellow for the Department of Energy at Rice University. He holds several patents and has over five years of experience at NASA, where he served as a Life Support Systems Engineer. His work on filtration has been published in a top 5 percent journal and forms the basis of his company, Helix Earth Technologies. He is also an active member of Rice’s inaugural cohort of innovation fellows, where he is honing his business and entrepreneurship skills. He recently won first place at the Napier Rice Launch Challenge for his company.