The AAT Project
Ambassador

Keiana
Cavé

Age: 19

GOALS & ACHIEVEMENTS
Forbes 30 Under 30 - Energy

Keiana Cavé is an American Entrepreneur. She is also a student at the University of Michigan studying chemical engineering. She was honored in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2017 in the "Energy and Cleantech" Category. Keiana is one of the youngest changemakers to be featured on the list. She is originally from New Orleans, Louisiana. Keiana began her own independent research on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill with a focus on nanotechnology at the University of New Orleans at 15. Now, she has two published scientific research papers and two patents. After placing second at Intel ISEF in the Earth and Environmental Sciences category for her project, “A Method for Identifying the Photoproducts, Mechanisms, and Toxicity of Petroleum from the Deepwater Horizon by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography and DNPHi Derivatization,” Keiana became a member of Tulane University's Van Bael Lab where she continued her oil spill research with a focus on bacterial and fungal endophytes.

As a lab technician, she worked with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Her work has been awarded with the United States Air Force Certificate of Achievement. One of her published research papers articulates her designed method that allows the EPA to develop certain aldehydes or toxins that form as photo-products during oil spills. As a result of her research successes, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory and NASA have named an asteroid after her. They named the identified orbiting rock 2000 GD136 as Keianacave. This type of honor is shared by less than 15,000 people. The planet was discovered in 2000 by the Lincoln Laboratory team.

She is a former Web Design Recruit for Microsoft, Environmental Field Scientist for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and an MIT Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp alumna. After studying under Tulane University, she spent a summer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp and developed a molecule that could become the world’s next dominant oil spill dispersant. Recently, she raised $1.2 million in funding from Chevron to continue researching the molecule. At the Forbes convention, she met celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Richard Branson, Jessica Alba, and Elon Musk.

Keiana is the CEO of Meter, her startup business. This application aims to provide cost and location information for parking spots in downtown areas of New Orleans. She and her partner presented the startup to Elon Musk during the Under 30 Summit.

Throughout her freshman year of college, Keiana has become the University of Michigan's Student of the Year, and was recently awarded the 2017 Faces of Impact Prize by Impact Squared. She has also become a social media influencer after accepting offers to post sponsored Instagram ads for Lululemon athletica, Francesca’s Clothing, and various boutiques. She has been featured in campaigns by MTV, College Fashionista, and Forbes. Keiana recently delivered a TEDx talk in Barcelona to use her platform to inspire others. Soon after her TEDx Talk, Keiana delivered the commencement speech at Lusher Charter School, her alma mater in New Orleans.

Keiana worked at Intel Corporation during the Summer of 2017 as a technical intern.