Semi-finalists Chosen for Cohort 6

Thirty-two individuals comprising 28 startups were chosen to advance to the semi-finals and compete to join Chain Reaction Innovations’ Cohort 6. A broad range of energy innovations are represented in this year’s applicants, including energy storage and generation, water, decarbonization, circular economy, quantum, manufacturing, and materials.

Responding to a nation-wide call for proposals, 199 applications were collected by the October 31 deadline. After reviews by CRI staff and Argonne scientists to narrow the field, the semi-finalists were chosen.

The 32 will pitch their startups’ technology in a 30-minute interview to a review panel over five days during the first two weeks of December. From this group, approximately 15-18 finalists will be chosen to pitch at the virtual final competition on February 22-23rd, 2022.

Congratulations to Cohort 6 Semifinalists

Gabrielle Abizeid, Hydrogen Sensor/Safety Device

Sergey Antipov, Laser Microfabrication and Customization of NV-centers in Diamond for Quantum Sensing

Zachary Berquist, Transparent Refractory Aerogels

Ryan Goethals, Metal-Air Harvester

Kristian Gubsch, Low-cost, Low Carbon Acrylonitrile

Ryan Hackler & Robert Kennedy, Chemical Recycling of Plastic Waste to Higher Value Lubricants

Thomas Horseman, Solar-powered Water Treatment Technology

John Howard & Matthew Shieh, Enabling Commercial Hypersonic and Reusable Launch Vehicles through Scalable Manufacturing of Smart Composite Thermal Protection

Brandon Howe, High Critical Field Strength Ultrawide Bandgap Gallium Oxide for Energy-Efficient High-Power Electronics

Malek Ibrahim, Hydrogen Production from Hydrogen Storage Organic Molecules

Rong Jiang, Proton-conductive Polymer Membranes for Iron-titanium Redox Flow Batteries

Jason Jordan, Mobile Solar Micro Grid

Kwaku Jyamfi, FTF Biomass Electricity Generator

John Krzeminski, High Power, Light Weight, Range Extender Internal Combustion Engine

Tae Hwan Lim, Distributed Direct Air Capture System

Paula Moon, Biotechnology to Select Optimal Strain for Biomethane

Christopher Nicholas, Bio-based Acrylics from Lactic Acid

Vikas Nandwana, Oleophilic Hierarchical Multi-functional (OHM) Membrane

Manas Pathak, Long Duration Energy Storage

Harrison Paul, OleoSponge Oil Sorbent

Joanne Rodriguez, Mycoremediation of Waste into New Materials

Michelle Ruiz, Valorization of Wastewater for Nutritious Food Product Production

George Sadler, Magnetic Induction for Industrial Thermal Processing

Manish Kumar Singh & Sean Sullivan, Silicon-compatible Integrated Platform for Quantum Communication

Ever Valasquez & Adam Uliana, Ion Solutions – Advanced Adsorbents and Multifunctional Membrane Separation

Tony Valayil Varghese, Multiprinter compatible Nanomaterial Inks for Additive Manufacturing

Steve Xiao, Flexible Aluminum Smelter for Grid Stabilization

Pei Zhang, Microbial Clean Tech Metal Oxide Manufacturing and Decarbonization

###

Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) is a two-year program for innovators focusing on energy and science technologies. Through an annual call for innovators, four to six teams will be selected to join CRI. Program participants will receive the financial and technical support needed to perform early-stage research and development (R&D) that may launch energy or manufacturing businesses in the future.

Latest News

See All
  • 2024 Startup Milestones

    About CRI Startup founders and the CRI team work together to advance cutting-edge technologies that offer science solutions that benefit America and the world. CRI support allows science startups to bring their deep tech to market more quickly. The combined total of follow-on funding raised… Read More

  • Pivot, not Panic: Chain Reaction Innovations is Driving Startup Success

    By focusing on the needs of founders, Argonne’s Chain Reaction Innovations program provides startups with funding, expertise and laboratory resources to turn innovative clean-energy technologies into market-changing companies. As a result of his work at Argonne, Gary Ong, founder and CEO of Celadyne Technologies, is… Read More

  • Director's Letter

    Dear Friends of CRI, Welcome to the Summer 2024 issue of the CRI newsletter. In it, you’ll see the breadth of our spring and summer activities. It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to CRI’s newest cohort. Welcoming a new cohort is… Read More

  • LEEP Demo Day 2024

    In May, the Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program’s (LEEP) Demo Day featured graduating cohorts from the four LEEP nodes including Chain Reaction Innovations at Argonne National Laboratory, Innovation Crossroads at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, West Gate at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Cyclotron Road at Lawrence… Read More

  • CRI Seeks Applicants for Next Cohort

    Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), a Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, will begin accepting applications for Cohort 2025 on September 4th, the program’s ninth group of early-stage startups. Innovators with emerging science and energy… Read More