Daniela Blanco

Daniela Blanco obtained her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering ('20) and is the co-founder and CEO of Sunthetics.  Her vision is to build a more sustainable chemical industry. At Sunthetics, she has developed an innovative machine-learning platform that enables the development of new chemicals, materials, and processes up to 32 times faster, significantly reducing waste and emissions. Daniela has multiple patents on sustainable chemical technologies and has been named Forbes 30 Under 30 in Energy North America (2021), Top Innovator Under 35 in Latin America by MIT Technology Review (2020), Top Female Founder by Inc Magazine (2020), Top Graduate Inventor by Lemelson-MIT (2020), Global Student Entrepreneur Champion (2019), and Brightest AI-CI Mind by the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence (2019). In 2023 she was featured in Cosmopolitan magazine, in an article headlined “The New C-Suite.” 

Her vision for the future of chemical manufacturing has earned her invitations to speak at multiple panels and conferences, including the 2019 International Entrepreneurial Summit for the Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations and the TED stage. Her story and vision led her to co-star in National Geographic’s recent documentary, Own the Room, available to stream on Disney+. 

Daniela took advantage of the resources available through NYU to advance her ventures. “I have participated in the J-term Startup Sprint, 300K Competition, and InnoVention Competition,” she says, “which have helped me grow as an entrepreneur, guiding me on how to succeed in the market and make a real difference.”

“NYU is everything I wanted it to be,” she adds. “The professors, facilities, and resources are here to support your goals and open your mind to even broader possibilities. NYU is where your ideas awaken and become the reality you had dreamed of. My company may now be headquartered in Texas, but it was born right there in Brooklyn”