In Memoriam: Matthew Eisaman

Associate Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences

Matthew Eisaman (1974–2025), AB, Princeton University; MA and PhD, Harvard University; faculty member at Yale since 2023: He was a pioneering scientist in the field of ocean carbon capture. He had a “singular vision” for mitigating climate change by accelerating the Earth’s natural processes for capturing and storing carbon dioxide.

Eisaman was a world-renowned expert on capturing carbon in the ocean through electrochemical means. He was part of a wave of exciting, innovative scientists invited to join the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture, and organized a successful international symposium on marine carbon dioxide removal in his first year on campus.

Eisaman was also the cofounder of Ebb Carbon, a startup that specializes in capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere in seawater, which also helps reduce ocean acidity.

Throughout his career, Eisaman enjoyed working on problems that challenged him to step back and examine them from new angles. Making progress on interdisciplinary problems that were challenging scientifically, whose solutions would make a difference for many people around the world, was a driving motivation of his work.

We remember him as a gifted scientist, compassionate and effective teacher, dedicated mentor, extraordinary colleague, and generous collaborator.

Eisaman joined Yale’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in 2023, first as a research scientist and a few months later as a tenured associate professor. Before Yale, he was an associate professor at Stony Brook University and had a guest appointment at Brookhaven National Lab, a lab overseen by the US Department of Energy and known for its groundbreaking scientific and technological discoveries.

Matt will be missed by those that knew him, by his colleagues and students at Yale, and by the international scientific community, not only for his keen scientific insight but also for his decency and his belief that science can and should help the world’s most vulnerable.