# Adam Slavney

> Adam Slavney is the co-founder and CEO of Pascal, a Cambridge, Massachusetts startup commercializing solid-state refrigerants to replace the planet-warming gases inside air conditioners, heat pumps, refrigerators and data centers. A Stanford-trained chemist who studied perovskite solar cells before a Harvard postdoc in clean-energy economics, Slavney spun Pascal out of Harvard in 2023 around a class of barocaloric materials that respond to pressure two orders of magnitude more strongly than other solids. The company raised an $8M seed round in 2024 led by Engine Ventures, with Khosla Ventures participating, and later added a Series A to scale prototypes. Slavney's pitch is blunt: heating and cooling burn nearly 40% of the world's energy and the refrigerants doing it cause about 2% of global warming, and he wants to keep the cooling while deleting the climate cost.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at Pascal
- **Organizations:** Pascal (Pascal Technology), Harvard University Center for the Environment, Stanford University
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Ph.D. in Chemistry (perovskite solar cells), Stanford University, Postdoctoral Fellow (Jarad Mason Lab; clean-energy transition), Harvard University Center for the Environment
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Pascal, a Harvard spinout commercializing solid refrigerants with zero global warming potential., Helped discover/commercialize a class of barocaloric materials that are about two orders of magnitude more responsive to pressure than other solids., Raised an $8M seed round (2024) led by Engine Ventures with Khosla Ventures participating.

## Career timeline

- **2019** — Earned Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University, researching perovskite solar cells.
- **2019** — Began postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard University Center for the Environment in Jarad Mason's lab, studying solid-state thermal storage and the economics of the clean-energy transition.
- **2023** — Co-founded Pascal, spun out of Harvard, to commercialize solid barocaloric refrigerants; became CEO.
- **2024** — Pascal raised an $8M seed round led by Engine Ventures, with Khosla Ventures and Blindspot Ventures participating.
- **2024** — Named to C&EN's '10 Startups to Watch'; spoke at EmTech MIT 2024.
- **2025** — Presented Pascal's low-pressure solid-state barocaloric design at the ATMOsphere Europe Summit; company advanced toward a Series A and larger prototypes.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Pascal, a Harvard spinout commercializing solid refrigerants with zero global warming potential.
- Helped discover/commercialize a class of barocaloric materials that are about two orders of magnitude more responsive to pressure than other solids.
- Raised an $8M seed round (2024) led by Engine Ventures with Khosla Ventures participating.
- Named to C&EN's '10 Startups to Watch' (2024).
- Selected as a speaker at EmTech MIT 2024 and ATMOsphere Europe 2025.
- Published materials-chemistry researcher (perovskites, porous materials) with a strong citation record.

## Latest updates

- **2025** — Presented Pascal's low-pressure solid-state barocaloric refrigeration design, with cost and efficiency details, at the ATMOsphere Europe Summit 2025.
- **2024-05** — Pascal announced an $8M seed round led by Engine Ventures to scale its solid-refrigerant technology.

## Links

- Website: https://pascaltechnology.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamslavney/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/adam-slavney
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-25