Charles Brooke serves as the Special Advisor to the Science Oversight Committee. He is the program lead for livestock enteric methane at Spark Climate Solutions, a non-profit think tank dedicated to accelerating the progress of high-impact climate fields. He serves as a scientific advisor to the International Union of Microbiological Societies – Role of Microbes in Climate Change Initiative, as a steering committee member for Nitrogen 2.0, and as a special advisor to the Enteric Fermentation R&D Accelerator. Charles’ formal education and professional background include clinical and environmental microbiology and broad experience in the food and agriculture sector, including food safety microbiology, tree crops, water quality, and meat harvesting and processing.
Previously, Charles served as the coordinator for bioinformatics for the California State Water Board and lead scientist for short-lived climate pollutants within the executive office of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, where he created and managed the first U.S. state program to support enteric methane research. He has also worked as an affiliate researcher at the University of California, Davis, where he focused on evaluating feed additives for enteric methane mitigation, rumen microbiome responses, and the discovery of novel microbial compounds.