Melissa Fensterstock

Melissa Fensterstock is an Investor at Material Impact based in Connecticut, where she focuses on commercializing early-stage scientific innovations in human and planetary health. Previously, she served as the CEO of Landsdowne Labs, an MIT spin-out she co-founded with Robert Langer that secured National Science Foundation grants and venture capital funding. Her background includes corporate development for a public biotechnology firm and spinning out therapeutics from Columbia University and Johns Hopkins University. Fensterstock holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and currently serves as an executive in residence at Yale University and ClimateHaven. At Material Impact, she defines investment theses for Fund 3 and supports portfolio companies such as Orbion, Fusion Coolant, and Bloomer Tech. She concentrates her operational and investment efforts on frontier technologies spanning space tech, brain-machine interfaces, and deep tech life sciences.