Justin Whiteley
-
Growing a Startup with a Big Impact from a Tiny Fungi
Entrepreneur Tyler Huggins grew up in rural Montana in a family of loggers and miners. But he wanted to have a larger impact on society as a whole, so he decided to launch a startup. He looked at many options, but they just … Read More
-
Growing A Startup With A Big Impact From A Tiny Fungi
Entrepreneur Tyler Huggins grew up in rural Montana in a family of loggers and miners. But he wanted to have a larger impact on society as a whole, so he decided to launch a startup. He looked at many options, but they just didn't have the impact he craved. Until he met Justin Whiteley, a fellow entrepreneur who had been working to build next-generation battery technology near Silicon Valley. The pair formed Emergy. Read More
-
Growing a startup with a big impact from a tiny fungi
Huggins and Whiteley launched their startup while post docs at the University of Colorado-Boulder and moved to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory in January after earning a spot in Chain Reaction Innovations, the lab’s new program to accelerate cleantech innovation by growing entrepreneurs. Read More
-
August CRI Newsletter
In this issue, learn about how Emergy is growing bio-designed carbon with improved properties, hear why the first cohort of innovators joined CRI, and sign up for a webinar where you can ask questions about the Sept. 5 opening of the application period for the second cohort. Read More
-
Innovators join first entrepreneurial program at Argonne National Laboratory
The Midwest’s first entrepreneurial program to embed innovators in a national laboratory announced its inaugural group of entrepreneurs and mentor partners, including the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Developers of energy, transportation and aerospace technologies will join Chain Reaction Innovations based at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory. Read More
-
Innovators Drawn to Illinois By Argonne's First Embedded Entrepreneurship Program
In an event today with U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Senator Dick Durbin (D-III) at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), the Midwest’s first entrepreneurship program to embed innovators in a national laboratory, announced the selection of its first members and mentor partners. Read More
-
Leaders address future of Argonne National Laboratory
U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, Rep. Bill Foster and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz address the future of facilities like Argonne National Laboratory during an event Dec. 20, 2016 at the University of Chicago. The video tape of the Chain Reaction Innovations press conference to announce its first cohort can be viewed here. Read More
-
Meet the 4 Clean-Tech Innovations that will Drive Manufacturing Efficiency Gains
Strategic partnerships with government agencies and NGOs can help businesses drive efficiency — and develop innovations that can improve other companies’ environmental and economic performance at the same time. Case in point: a program that embeds innovators in a national laboratory where they will develop environmentally sustainable and energy-efficient technologies that drive manufacturing growth. The first four innovators to participate in the Chain Reaction Innovations program were announced yesterday at an event with US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-III) at the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. These four were selected from more than 100 entrepreneurs and startups from 22 states that applied to participate in the first cohort based at the DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory. The program is funded through the DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office. Read More
-
Ernest Moniz, Sen. Dick Durbin Name 1st Cohort of Argonne Lab Entrepreneurship Program
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) have announced the names of the initial members and mentor partners of an embedded entrepreneurship program based at the Argonne National Laboratory. Read More
-
New initiative connects entrepreneurs with leading Illinois energy lab
A new initiative at Argonne National Laboratory seeks to accelerate energy innovation by embedding promising young entrepreneurs in one of the nation’s foremost national laboratories. Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) targets technology’s so-called “Valley of Death,” where smart scientific ideas in energy or other fields fail to translate to real-world results. Many times, the inability to go from lab bench to factory floor is the result of a lack of money, materials, time, business acumen or experience. With CRI, Argonne will give five early-stage energy innovators access to all of those coveted assets. Read More
Latest Updates
See All-
Science entrepreneurship competition with up to $420,000 award opens Sept. 5
Building an energy or materials science technology is difficult. Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) can help you do that by providing business planning and technical mentorship, up to $200,000 in a fellowship grant, and up to $220,000 to spend on research work at Argonne National Laboratory. Read More
-
Clean Energy Trust Challenge Accepting Applications Until Jan. 17
The Clean Energy Trust (CET) Challenge is one of the nation’s largest fundraising events for energy tech startups. This is the eight year of the program and the third consecutive year that CET has committed to invest $1,000,000 in cleantech startups in the Midwest. The … Read More
-
World-Class Mentoring
A key component of the Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) program is business mentorship. In addition to the world-class scientific and technical support that CRI will provide innovators, participants will also get assistance in developing business strategies, conducting market research, and finding long-term financing and potential … Read More
-
Chain Reaction Innovation's First-Ever Cohort Features Diverse Set of Innovators and Ideas
Applicants for CRI came from 22 states. About 50% of applicants were with startups; the rest were students, professors, postdocs or members of industry. The four recipients represent Colorado, Indiana, North Dakota and Ohio. Read More
-
First Chain Reaction Innovations cohort: Ian Hamilton
Ian Hamilton is one of the innovators selected for the first cohort of Chain Reaction Innovations, a new two-year program that offers innovators with energy- or science-based ideas a home at Argonne National Laboratory for two years, where they’ll have time to develop and scale … Read More
