This event is hybrid. Register to receive the Zoom link or attend in-person: 35-225.

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Paul Eremenko '01 is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Universal Hydrogen Co., a company striving to bring about zero-emissions aviation with zero infrastructure by completing the end-to-end hydrogen value chain for the aviation sector.

After emigrating from Ukraine to the United States with his parents at age 11, Paul Eremenko earned his pilot’s license before his driver’s license and set his aim on being an aerospace engineer. MIT cemented that aspiration. Today, he is a co-founder and the CEO of Universal Hydrogen Co., a Los Angeles–based startup developing hydrogen storage, transport, and distribution solutions and hydrogen power trains for commercial aircraft.

Last spring, Eremenko launched Universal Hydrogen to create what he believes is a realistic path toward those emission reduction targets. His fellow MIT alum and former advisor John-Paul Clarke ’91, SM ’92, ScD ’97 is a co-founder and CTO. The company’s key innovations are lightweight modular capsules for delivering “green hydrogen” from renewable energy production sites to the airplane, as well as a fuel cell conversion kit that they intend to have ready by 2025 to replace the existing turbine engine in airplanes used for short regional flights. The founders envision that by the early 2030s, larger hydrogen-powered planes will be built from scratch, once the technology has gained safety certification and passenger acceptance in regional service.

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The Aerospace Innovation Seminar Series invites the biggest names in entrepreneurial aerospace to come and share their experiences, challenges, and lessons learned while building their respective careers.

This seminar series is part of the new Certificate in Aerospace Innovation offered by the MIT Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics in collaboration with the MIT Innovation Initiative and the Martin Trust MIT Center for Entrepreneurship. Learn more about the Certificate in Aerospace Innovation.