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Science Advisory Board · 6 Members

World-class science.
Zero conflicts.

Teravent's Science Advisory Board is the independent scientific body that approves all methodologies, sets MRV standards, and provides the scientific authority underpinning every credit the registry issues. Members are selected for expertise and independence — never for commercial alignment.

6
Board Members
280+
Combined Publications
0
Commercial Conflicts
100%
Global South Represented
IPCC
AR5/AR6 Contributors
How the Board Works

Independence by design

01
No commercial interests permitted
Board members may not hold equity in, or advisory roles with, any entity that buys, sells, or develops carbon credits. Conflicts are reviewed annually and any arising conflict results in mandatory recusal or resignation.
02
Binding votes on all methodologies
The Board's approval is required for every methodology Teravent accepts. A simple majority approves; a single veto can initiate a full review. The Board has refused commercially high-value methodologies when scientific evidence was insufficient.
03
All votes published in full
Every Board vote — including dissenting opinions — is published publicly within 30 days of the decision. No methodology approval is ever issued without full documentation of the scientific basis and any disagreements on the Board.
04
Geographic diversity requirement
The Board must at all times have at least two members whose primary institutional affiliations are in the Global South. This requirement is constitutional — it cannot be waived by any officer of Teravent, including the CEO.
05
Annual methodology review cycle
All approved methodologies are subject to annual review. New scientific evidence may trigger a methodology update or provisional suspension at any time — including from published papers the Board proactively monitors.
06
Public application for Board membership
Board vacancies are advertised publicly. Candidates are assessed against published competency criteria by a selection committee chaired by the CSO and two independent external advisers. The CEO has no vote in Board appointments.
Individual Profiles

Meet the Board

6 members · 4 continents · Zero conflicts of interest
Board Chair
A
Prof. Amara Diallo
Board Chair · Climate Science
University of Dakar, Senegal
IPCC AR6 Working Group III Contributor
Carbon Budget AccountingLand-Use EmissionsCarbon Market EquitySub-Saharan Africa

Professor Diallo leads the African Climate Research Consortium at the University of Dakar and has contributed to four successive IPCC assessment reports, most recently as a lead author in Working Group III of AR6. His work focuses on carbon budget accounting, land-use emissions, and the equity dimensions of carbon markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

As Chair of Teravent's Science Advisory Board, Professor Diallo sets the scientific agenda for methodology review, presides over Board votes, and is the final arbiter of scientific disputes within the registry's governance structure. He was recruited specifically for his willingness to resist commercial pressure — a quality he has demonstrated in declining to approve two commercially high-value methodologies that he judged insufficiently robust.

He holds a PhD in Atmospheric Science from the University of Paris-Saclay and was awarded the African Union Commission's Prize for Scientific Innovation in 2019.

Chair Since
January 2022
Affiliation
University of Dakar, Senegal
IPCC Contribution
AR4, AR5, AR6 WG III Lead Author
Expertise
Carbon budgets · Land-use emissions · African climate
S
Dr. Siti Rahimah Binti Hassan
Marine Carbon Lead
CIFOR-ICRAF, Bogor, Indonesia
Blue Carbon Centre of Excellence, Principal Scientist
Mangrove CarbonTropical PeatlandsBlue Carbon MRVSE Asia Forests

Dr. Rahimah is the foremost authority on tropical peatland and mangrove carbon accounting in Southeast Asia. She developed the biomass allometric equations now used in Indonesian national forest inventories and has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers on blue carbon science — more than any other researcher active in the field.

Her long-term research programme across Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines has produced the most comprehensive dataset of mangrove and peatland carbon stocks in the tropics. This data underpins Teravent's blue carbon methodology TM-001 and informed several provisions of the IPCC Wetlands Supplement.

She serves on the editorial boards of Global Change Biology and Carbon Balance and Management, and advises the Indonesian Ministry of Environment on peatland restoration policy. She holds a PhD from Wageningen University and is based in Bogor, Indonesia.

Board Member Since
March 2022
Affiliation
CIFOR-ICRAF, Bogor, Indonesia
Publications
80+ peer-reviewed papers
Methodology
Co-authored Teravent TM-001 (Blue Carbon)
R
Dr. Rafael Augusto Mendes
Soil & Biochar Science Lead
EMBRAPA — Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation
IBI Technical Committee Chair
Soil Organic CarbonBiochar MRVTropical AgricultureLatin America

Dr. Mendes has spent 20 years studying soil organic carbon dynamics in tropical agricultural systems across Latin America, with field programmes in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico. He chairs the International Biochar Initiative's technical standards committee and has developed widely-adopted biochar MRV protocols that are referenced in registries across three continents.

At Teravent, Dr. Mendes oversees all soil carbon and biochar methodology review. He was instrumental in establishing the H:Corg ratio and OxBC test thresholds used in Teravent's biochar permanence assessment — thresholds that are now considered the gold standard for permanence verification in the biochar market.

He holds a PhD in Soil Science from the University of São Paulo and is an Associate Professor at EMBRAPA's National Centre for Soil Research. He received the Brazilian Academy of Sciences' Young Scientist Award in 2017.

Board Member Since
March 2022
Affiliation
EMBRAPA National Soil Research Centre
Standards Role
IBI Technical Committee Chair
Methodology
Co-authored Teravent TM-002 (Biochar) & TM-003 (Soil)
N
Prof. Naledi Khumalo
Enhanced Weathering Lead
University of Cape Town, South Africa
Dept. of Geological Sciences, Associate Professor
Enhanced Rock WeatheringSilicate GeochemistryAfrican SoilsMeasurement Science

Professor Khumalo is Africa's leading expert on enhanced rock weathering as a carbon dioxide removal pathway. Her field trials across South African and East African agricultural soils — the largest such dataset from the Global South — have provided foundational data for weathering rate models now used by research groups worldwide.

Her work on the cation depletion method for quantifying in-situ weathering rates is considered among the most rigorous in the field and directly informed the measurement approach in Teravent's enhanced weathering methodology TM-007. She was one of the first researchers to systematically characterise the co-benefits of EW for soil fertility in sub-Saharan agricultural contexts.

She holds a PhD in Geochemistry from the University of Cape Town and was a Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Hamburg. She sits on the scientific advisory committee of the Enhanced Weathering Initiative and has authored 45 peer-reviewed publications.

Board Member Since
September 2022
Affiliation
University of Cape Town, Geological Sciences
Field Programme
Largest EW dataset from Global South
Methodology
Lead author, Teravent TM-007 (Enhanced Weathering)
M
Dr. Maria Conceição Lima
Forest Ecology & Remote Sensing Lead
National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA), Brazil
Terrestrial Carbon Science Programme Lead
Forest Biomass EstimationRemote SensingAmazon CarbonREDD+ MRV

Dr. Lima is a tropical forest ecologist specialising in biomass estimation and remote sensing-based forest carbon monitoring. She leads the Amazon carbon monitoring programme at INPA and serves on the technical advisory panel for Brazil's national REDD+ strategy.

Her research programme uses high-resolution airborne LiDAR and Sentinel satellite data to produce wall-to-wall forest carbon maps of the Brazilian Amazon — the most spatially precise such mapping ever produced for the region. The methodology she developed for combining remote sensing with permanent sample plot data is the basis for Teravent's MRP-01 and MRP-02 protocols.

She holds a PhD from the Universidade de São Paulo and completed post-doctoral research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. She is co-chair of the Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) Methods and Guidance Working Group.

Board Member Since
September 2022
Affiliation
INPA — National Institute for Amazon Research
Remote Sensing
Sentinel, LiDAR, MODIS; Amazon-wide mapping
Methodology
Authored MRP-01 & MRP-02 protocols
J
Prof. James Okello Otieno
Ocean Biogeochemistry Lead
University of Nairobi / Kenya Marine & Fisheries Institute
Indian Ocean Carbon Programme Director
Ocean Alkalinity EnhancementMarine BiogeochemistrySeagrass CarbonIndian Ocean

Professor Otieno's research focuses on ocean alkalinity enhancement, seagrass carbon flux, and coral reef biogeochemistry in the Western Indian Ocean. He directs the Indian Ocean Carbon Programme, a multi-institution monitoring network tracking blue carbon stocks and ocean chemistry across East Africa's coast.

He is one of a small number of researchers worldwide who have conducted field trials of ocean alkalinity enhancement in tropical coastal environments, generating data that is critical for quantifying OAE carbon removal potential in conditions that differ substantially from the temperate Northern European settings where most OAE research has been conducted.

He holds a PhD in Oceanography from the University of Southampton and is a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. He advises the IAEA's Ocean Acidification International Coordination Centre and has published 38 papers on marine biogeochemistry.

Board Member Since
January 2023
Affiliation
University of Nairobi / KMFRI
OAE Programme
Largest OAE field trial dataset in Indian Ocean
Methodology
Lead reviewer, Teravent TM-009 (OAE, Provisional)
Leadership Team
Meet the people building and running Teravent
Co-founders and C-suite — carbon markets, law, engineering, and operations.
View Leadership Team → About Teravent →
Science Advisory Board

Interested in
joining the Board?

Teravent periodically opens applications for Science Advisory Board membership. We are particularly interested in experts in ocean biogeochemistry, enhanced weathering, and direct air capture with strong publication records and zero conflicts of interest in carbon markets.