Cohort 7 (2023-2025)

TIM FAIRLEY-WAX

Tim Fairley-Wax is the CEO of Aquora Biosystems, a spinout from the University of Michigan focused on revolutionizing biofilm filtration to drastically reduce cost and improve efficiency of waste treatment. While earning a B.S. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from UCLA, he worked with the R&D group at L.A. County Sanitation District’s largest wastewater treatment facility to evaluate feasibility of emerging technologies. He then earned an M.S.E. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan and continued as a research area specialist where he is responsible for co-managing two DOE-funded projects with $4.5 million dedicated to developing patented dynamic membrane filtration technology for improved treatment of municipal wastewater, food waste, and sewage sludge and scaling the technology to two pilot installations in partnership with local utilities. He is simultaneously leading the commercialization of this technology through Aquora, focusing efforts on near-term, high growth markets such as dairy manure treatment. In summer 2022, he led Aquora to be one of six national finalists in the CleanTech Open pitch competition.

AQUORA BIOSYSTEMS >

ALEXIS PEÑA

Alexis Peña is a material innovator with over 10 years of experience in tissue engineering and biomaterials. She completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University in May 2023, training in the lab of Dr. Jennifer Elisseeff at the Translational Tissue Engineering Center. Peña’s doctoral research focused on characterizing human cell/tissue therapies and biomaterials for musculoskeletal injuries and disease. She led the Phase 2 clinical testing for an off-the-shelf, ECM-based biomaterial for soft tissue reconstruction by managing the manufacturing of the tissue biologic product, conducting the laboratory analysis of clinical samples, and supporting the biomaterial technology’s regulatory and grant documentation (IRB, HRPO, FDA, DoD). She helped secure government funding for her translational research, an NSF-GRFP, and a DoD CTA to advance the clinical evaluation of biomaterial technology. Peña has 3 years of technology transfer experience through her internship at Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures on the Corporate Partnerships team. To date, she has co-authored 9 publications spanning regenerative medicine strategies and in vitro cell platforms to ultimately provide tissue engineering and regenerative medicine solutions. Peña will apply her expertise in manufacturing and tissue engineering strategies to innovate materials for the textile industry.

GOOD FIBES >

RAWAND RASHEED

Rawand Rasheed is a Ph.D. candidate and a research fellow for the Department of Energy at Rice University. He holds several patents and has over five years of experience at NASA, where he served as a Life Support Systems Engineer. His work on filtration has been published in a top 5 percent journal and forms the basis of his company, Helix Earth Technologies. He is also an active member of Rice’s inaugural cohort of innovation fellows, where he is honing his business and entrepreneurship skills. He recently won first place at the Napier Rice Launch Challenge for his company.

HELIX EARTH TECHNOLOGIES PROJECT INFO >

LAURA STOY

Laura Stoy is an experienced entrepreneur, inventor, and scientist passionate about onshoring critical mineral supply chains. She earned a B.A. in Chemistry from Vanderbilt University and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she developed a now patent-pending rare earth element recovery technology. She founded Rivalia Chemical Co. to commercialize that technology and completed Energy Techstars in Birmingham, Alabama, in the fall of 2022. Prior to founding the company, she worked for the Environmental Protection Agency and with the Federation of American Scientists on critical mineral supply chains.

RIVALIA CHEMICAL CO >