Earth Tools.

Anran Li

Optical and imaging design, mechanical systems

LinkedIn · Resume

Anran is an instrument maker and architect. He builds research-grade measurement hardware, including optical benches, imaging systems, flow cells, and the mechanical and software stacks around them. Most recently he was Head of Instruments and Methods at OXMAN, where he stood up the instrumentation department and led development of the ARCO2-01 aerobic respirometer, a continuous microbial-culture flow cell, a forty-unit bioreactor production run, and a Martian-atmosphere simulation capsule. Earlier OXMAN work included the Ozero biodegradation project and the build-out of the OXMAN lab. He holds an M.Arch. from MIT and a B.S. in Architecture from Stanford. At Earth Tools he leads optical and imaging design, mechanical systems, and method validation.

Zane Lindstrom

Hardware, firmware, and embedded systems

Zane is an electrical engineer with a decade of experience building scientific instruments, environmental sensors, biotech devices, and IoT systems. He has worked across several sensor and instrumentation companies, in both research and commercial hardware roles. His hardware has been deployed unattended for months at a time, including underwater, in Antarctica, and on moving wildlife. Representative work includes electronic noses for VOC detection, custom bioreactors, portable digital-droplet PCR, handheld spectroscopy-based pH instruments, underwater soil-respiration domes, wildlife tracking collars, and buoy-mounted wireless sensor networks. He holds a BSEE from Arizona State University and served as a research scientist at the University of Montana. At Earth Tools he leads all hardware, firmware, and embedded-software development.

Finn Stirling, Ph.D.

Assay validation, reference methods, operations

LinkedIn

Finn is a molecular and synthetic biologist with more than ten years of experience engineering microbial systems and designing quantitative biological assay platforms. His specialty is developing reproducible biological assays through genome-scale genetic engineering and directed evolution, microbial strain engineering for biodegradable- plastic biosynthesis, long-running automated instrumentation, and high-throughput screening. He holds a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard and completed a Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge. His publications include work in Molecular Cell, Cell Reports, and Nucleic Acids Research. At Earth Tools he leads assay validation, reference-method comparison, biosample handling, and program operations.

Sarabeth Buckley, Ph.D.

Ecology, plant science, field study design

LinkedIn

Sarabeth is an ecologist and plant scientist with more than fifteen years of experience designing experimental systems and measurement protocols to quantify environmental processes. Her research spans CO₂ flux measurement, custom instrumentation, molecular analysis of plant-microbial interactions, and more than a dozen field experiments on microplastic effects in soil and plant communities at concentrations from 0.001% to 10% by weight. Her publications include engineered-microorganism work in Nature Biotechnology. She holds a Ph.D. in Earth and Environment from Boston University, with research appointments at Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, and Boston University, and has secured over $384,000 in competitive NSF funding. At Earth Tools she leads ecology, plant-science, and field-study design.