MSE Startups Among Record-Setting UA FY2019 Numbers

MSE faculty ingenuity helped boost the University of Arizona to a record-setting 284 inventions in the 2019 fiscal year – more than any other year in the university's history – as reported by Tech Launch Arizona, the UA office that works with inventors to launch new companies and bring their innovations to the marketplace.

Clean Earth Tech, one of 11 new UA startups, has developed a new biocompatible material for dust control that keeps the ground damp for more than two months, even when exposed to an arid climate. The material was invented by assistant professor Minkyu Kim and mining and geological engineering assistant professor Kwangmin Kim.

Startup Extreme Cer-Nano is developing a high-temperature graphene-based ceramic material for extreme environments. Associate professor and University Distinguished Scholar Erica Corral, along with former postdoctoral researchers William Pinc and Luke Walker and then-student Victoria Marotto, are the inventors. Co-inventors include Zachary Wing of Advanced Ceramics Manufacturing LLC, and Mohammad Rafiee and Nikhil Koratkar of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

"By protecting these inventions and then licensing to existing companies and startups," said Doug Hockstad, TLA assistant vice president, "we create the pathways that ultimately put these inventions into the hands of the public, where they can create jobs and improve lives. The key to growth is continuing to increase engagement of our faculty, researchers and students in this effort."