Our Mission

We here at Algae Research and Supply are committed to educating the world about our favorite living organism: algae! Algae produces over half the world's Oxygen, is the base of most marine food chains, and is a key player in the future of clean energy. Algae Research Supply wants to educate the future scientists of the world about this incredible species through fun science projects, where children can learn for themselves the properties of our biosphere. 

Meet our Team

Matthew Huber: Chief Scientist

Our founder, Matthew Huber M.S., is trained as a Biological Oceanographer. He has spent his entire life in research and development in the sciences. During the 90s he worked in pharmaceuticals (Allergan and Purdue). During the 2000s he shifted his focus to marine science. He has been heavily involved in education, teaching at Hartnell, Cuyamaca, and Mira Costa Colleges.

Matt has been working specifically with algae cultivation since January of 2000. Studying phytoplankton photosynthesis at Moss Landing Marine Labs. Later he did research on Arthrospira platensis (spirulina) for Earthrise Nutritionals in the Imperial Valley of California. Mr. Huber was also involved in the efforts to bring algae-biofuels to market, working for General Atomics, Green Reactions and several smaller startups. He was involved with building algae farms in New Mexico, Texas, California, and Hawaii. In 2009 he received a grant from the State of California to build next-generation harvesting and growing equipment for algae biofuels.  To date, he has no tattoos of algae.

Daphne Warren - Strategic Operations

Daphne is the head strategic operations at ARS. If you are emailing or calling us, you're probably talking to her! Daphne is a 2022 UCSB grad in Earth Science, with an emphasis in climate and environment. There she was involved in research work, the national non propfit Clean Water Action, and the youth-led climate activism group Sunrise Movement. After graduation, she worked as an environmental educator in San Diego County where she fell in love with educating our youth about climate change.  At ARS, she is packing your orders, answering your questions, and helping to further develop our education program both in the lab and the community!

Hunter Jenkins- R&D Scientist II

Hunter is one of our phycologists(another word for algae scientist, but "algae wrangler" works too) at ARS. His career has spanned everything from stem-cell treatments for neurodegenerative diseases to figuring out what shrimp larvae like to eat.

Hunter’s algae journey began in 2016 as a student volunteer at SDSU, where he grew microalgae (aka phytoplankton for you marine biology buffs) for a coral reef research lab. Armed with a BS in Ecology(awarded in 2018), he went on to isolate dozens of new microalgae strains at UCSD's California Center for Algae Biotechnology to tackle the big questions of "food and fuel for the 21st century." Later, he led a team of revolving undergrad and graduate students at Cal Poly SLO in developing a system to capture phosphorus from wastewater using—you guessed it—algae. Over the years, he’s also been involved in various projects with our very own Matt.

From isolating wild strains to scaling up production in large photobioreactors and open ponds, Hunter has cultivated numerous species of algae, mastering how to take an algae strain from the bench to commercial-scale growth.

But his passions don’t stop at algae; he’s also into synthetic ecosystems like recirculating aquaculture systems, hydroponics, and—naturally—beer fermentation. His ultimate goal? Pushing the boundaries of artificial ecosystems to help humanity thrive off-Earth—whether on Mars, space stations, or wherever we set up shop next.

No algae tattoos yet, but he's working on it.

Danielle Martinez- Operations Manager- Emeratius 

Danielle has left our normal operations and is now a full time teacher!!!!   
She is staying onboard with us for special projects. 
She was  our operations manager, her amazing work is the reason Algae Research Supply is running so smoothly. Danielle started working for Matt as a nanny about 10 years ago, and became operations manager 5 years ago.