Chief Scientist – Biosciences
Shell
London, UK
Jeremy Shears was appointed Chief Scientist for Biosciences at Shell in 2018 to lead the company’s strategic thinking and innovation agenda in bioscience. He works with experts within Shell, as well as with researchers from top universities and institutes around the world, to help the company stay at the forefront of the energy transition. Focus areas include bioenergy, Nature Based Solutions (natural ecosystems as carbon sinks) and subsurface microbiology.
Prior to his current role, Jeremy was General Manager for the Biodomain R&D group in Shell Projects & Technology for nine years. He led technology development from early stage research through to commercial deployment at Shell’s technology centres in Houston, Amsterdam and Bangalore.
Jeremy joined Shell in 1986 and has held various commercial and technology leadership positions in the U.K., Belgium, United Arab Emirates, India and Singapore, spanning a variety of Shell’s businesses including New Energies, Chemicals, Lubricants, Biofuels and Product Safety & Risk Assessment.
He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Biology and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is Honorary Professor in Chemistry at the University of Manchester’s Manchester Institute of Biotechnology. He sits on a number of advisory boards, including the UK’s Innovation Strategy Board for the chemistry-using industries and the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum, the North-East Centre for Energy Materials, and the Solar Fuels Network.