Nico Fischer joins Breakthrough Energy’s Innovator Fellows program from C STAR in Cape Town, South Africa. Nico is Full Professor at the University of Cape Town and is the Director of the Catalysis Institute, with a career rooted in both academia and industry. Before joining academia, Nico served as a lead scientist at BASF in Germany, where he honed his skills in industrial innovation. He is an expert in heterogeneous catalysis, with a research portfolio encompassing Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, CO₂ reduction reactions (including the reverse water-gas shift reaction), and oxidative dehydrogenation. Together with Professor Michael Claeys, he founded C STAR.

C STAR is developing a highly efficient, scalable CO2-to-Fuel technology that converts captured CO2 and green H2 into drop-in hydrocarbon fuels. Designed for decentralized use, the technology targets emissions from hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as transportation and remote industry. With support from the Breakthrough Energy Fellowship, C STAR seeks to scale up their system to further develop and derisk it.

Although not originally from South Africa, Nico has made the beautiful city of Cape Town his home, where he enjoys spending time in nature – whether hiking in the mountains or exploring the ocean. He holds a Diplom-Ingenieur from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town.