Draft:Julio Friedmann

Samuel J. Friedmann, more widely known as Julio Friedmann, is a US scientist and expert in clean energy and climate change mitigation. He currently serves as the Chief Scientist at Carbon Direct, Inc. He previously served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy, US Department of Energy, during the second Obama administration. . He is most widely known as an expert on carbon management, including carbon capture and storage, carbon dioxide removal, CO2 conversion to products, and decarbonization of hard-to-abate energy systems, and is widely published on these topics. . He is also known as the Carbon Wrangler.

Early Life and Education
Julio was born to Harry and Helena Friedmann and led most of his childhood in Barrington, Rhode Island. He attended undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he studied both music composition and geology. His teachers there included John Harbison, Peter Child, and John Southard. He continued at MIT, earning a Masters Degree in Geology with Dr. John Grotzinger where he studied sedimentology and stratigraphy.

He subsequently completed his doctoral degree in Earth Science at University of Southern California where he studied stratigraphy, tectonics, and sedimentology with Drs. Douglas Burbank and Gregory Davis. His PhD work focused on regions of profound crustal extension, and worked near Death Valley, CA. This led him to propose the supradetachment basin model, a new model of extensional basin formation and deposition. During this time, he met orchestra conductor and singer Lara Webber, who would eventually marry.

Towards the end of his program, he attended a week-long short course on climate change science conducted by CalTech and NASA. This is where he was first introduced to climate change science.

Early Career
Upon graduation, Dr. Friedmann began work at Exxon Production Research Co. in Houston as a research geologist, where his research focused on both fluvial and deep-water depositional systems. After 5 years at Exxon, which spanned the merger that formed ExxonMobil, he moved to Baltimore and began as a research scientist and lecturer at the Univ. of Maryland. There, he learned about the new and emerging field of carbon management, notably carbon capture and storage, and chose to focus his career on mitigating climate change through science and technology. This led him to Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL), where he worked for 12 years and held many positions, including Chief Energy Technologist. In addition to research and publication, he helped build the programs in clean energy, carbon management, and climate mitigation. This also began his work in China, where he co-led the US-China Clean Energy Research Program on Coal and Carbon Management.

Service at the Department of Energy
During his time at LLNL, he was invited to join the Department of Energy (DOE) during the second Obama administration under the leadership of Dr. Ernest J Moniz. He worked there from 2013-2016, first as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Clean Coal and later as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, serving under Assistant Secretary Christopher Smith. During that time, he changed the name of the office of Clean Coal to the Office of Clean Coal and Carbon Management. Several new programs began under this leadership, including the nation's first CO2 removal and CO2 utilization program and a program to recover critical minerals from coal wastes.

Carbon Wrangler
After departing from the DOE and LLNL, he began to focus on policy and finance for deployment of clean energy and climate solutions. This led him to redefine his work as carbon wrangling and create a public persona as the Carbon Wrangler.

Recent career
Shortly after departing LLNL, he took a position at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University as senior research scholar. There, he led the Carbon Management Research Initiative (CaMRI), which focused on deep decarbonization technology, policy, and economics. This included work on the decarbonization of industrial heat, steel, cement, and chemical production as well as conversion of CO2 recycling, application of CCUS in the power sector and production of green hydrogen and biohydrogen. During this time, he and the CaMRI team developed a methodology for levelized cost of carbon abatement. and the discipline of geospheric return. He testified multiple times before US House and Senate committees, and continued his work on decarbonization pathways in China during this time

In 2020, he began part-time work as an advisor to the newly formed company, Carbon Direct. In 2022, he began to work full-time at Carbon Direct as the Chief Scientist. This has included work on criteria for carbon dioxide removal, direct air capture , ammonia as a clean fuel for decarbonization , sustainable aviation fuels and analysis of the Inflation Reduction Act , sustainable aviation fuels, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 6.

Dr. Friedmann is a TED Speaker. He has also appeared podcasts, television, and other media. He has presented at COP22 through COP28.

Publications
Dr. Friedmann has published in many fields of work, including sedimentology, tectonics, carbon capture and storage, carbon removal, climate policy, and clean fuels. This included co-authorship of a series of energy and climate roadmaps for the Japanese Government under the auspices of the Innovation for a Cool Earth Forum. A full list of publications, excluding some reports, professional blog posts, congressional testimony, and personal blog posts, can be found at GoogleScholar.