Rawand Rasheed is the CEO and Co-founder of Helix Earth, a company pioneering innovations in liquid-gas chemistry to reduce emissions and energy use in air conditioning and carbon capture. Born in Iraq as a Kurdish immigrant, Rawand’s journey is one of resilience and innovation. After immigrating to the United States, he pursued his passion for engineering, earning a PhD in engineering from Rice University and building a career at NASA, where he worked for over five years, first as a research fellow and later as a life support systems engineer. At NASA, Rawand developed advanced thermal-fluid systems, including microgravity water-recovery systems, CO₂ scrubbers, and astronaut respirator filters. His expertise has led to numerous patents and publications and several prestigious accolades, including the ACHR News 40 Under 40 Award for innovators in the HVAC industry and recognition on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List of Energy Innovators. He was also awarded the Herschel M. Rich Invention Award from Rice University for his contributions to sustainable cooling technologies. Rawand combines deep technical expertise with an entrepreneurial vision to drive impactful change in industrial decarbonization. His work at Helix Earth is shaping the future of clean energy, bringing scalable solutions to real-world challenges in air conditioning and CO₂ capture.