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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ellen Yui, YUI+Company, Inc.
o: 301-270-8571, m: 301-332-4135
[email protected]
Solidia Technologies Featured as Leading Statewide Innovation at
NJ: State of Invention Conference of Rutgers University Libraries
Co-inventor and Solidia R&D Director Vahit Atakan presents “From Invention to Market”
New Brunswick, N.J., June 28, 2014—Solidia Technologies® was featured as a leading
innovation of New Jersey at the NJ: State of Invention Conference today at the Rutgers
University Alexander Library. Co-inventor and Solidia Technologies Director of Research and
Development Vahit Atakan, Ph.D., presented “From Invention to Market,” a discussion of
Solidia’s award-winning, sustainable technology and the road it has traveled from Rutgers
University’s Materials Science Department to commercialization. The conference was
cosponsored by the Rutgers University Libraries, the Edison Papers Project, and the Classics
Department of the School of Arts and Sciences.
Solidia’s technologies make it easy and profitable to use carbon dioxide (CO2) to create superior
and sustainable building materials. Its patented technologies start with a sustainable cement,
cure concrete with CO2 instead of water, reduce carbon emissions up to 70%, and recycle 60 to
100% of the water used in production. Using the same raw materials and existing equipment as
traditional concretes, the resulting CO2-cured concrete products are higher performing, cost less
to produce, and cure in less than 24 hours. For over 50 years, scientists have been trying to
cure concrete with CO2 knowing the resulting product would be stronger and more stable;
Solidia Technologies is the first to make this commercially viable.
“Focus and collaboration are critical elements when moving an invention from idea to
commercialization,” said Dr. Atakan. “First you must focus your technological discovery on
finding applications that are relevant to a market and then reach beyond your own laboratory
and experience to find partners in industry, government, and even other universities who can
help test the application and strengthen your research with their technical and market
perspectives and expertise.”
Solidia’s technology and product development is substantiated by third-party research and
collaborative testing, including ongoing research in concrete applications with industry leader
Lafarge. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration also
supports Solidia with a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to examine
transportation infrastructure applications at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, and
the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has co-funded
a four-year research and development project as part of its CO2 Storage Program. Long-term
research continues at Rutgers, and collaborative research efforts are also underway in
laboratories at Purdue, Ohio, and South Florida universities.
The standing-room-only audience learned of the prolific history of innovation of the Garden
State, heralded as the birthing ground to the band aid, the light bulb, bubble wrap, the antibiotic
streptomycin, and many more inventions that disrupted markets and improved lives around the
world. Other presenters and topics included: keynote speaker Princess Elettra Marconi,
--more--
--2-daughter of Guglielmo Marconi, the celebrated inventor of the radio; Paul Israel, director of the
Edison Papers Project, on reinventing invention in lieu of machine stoppages and unproductive
industrial laboratories; and Mary Chute and Linda Langschied, respectively from the New Jersey
State Library and New Jersey Digital Highway, who co-presented “From Archivist to Activist.”
Other topics included the culture of invention at NJ’s Bell Laboratories by IEEE archivist and
historian Sheldon Hochheiser and at RCA Laboratories by Alex Magoun, Outreach Historian for
the IEEE History Center. Marianne Gaunt, Rutgers’ Vice President for Information Services and
University Librarian, spoke on the role of libraries and librarians in documenting and fostering
invention, and Rutgers-New Brunswick Libraries’ Digital Humanities Librarian Francesca
Giannetti spoke on Rutgers’ prominent role in New Jersey invention.
Solidia was honored with the 2013 R&D Top 100 Award, named a finalist in both the 2014
CCEMC Grand Challenge First Round and the 2013 Katerva Award, shortlisted to both the 2013
Cleantech 100 and MIT’s Climate CoLab, and named a 2014 Best Place to Work in NJ. Based in
Piscataway, N.J. (USA), Solidia’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Bright
Capital, BASF, and BP. Follow Solidia Technologies at www.solidiatech.com and on LinkedIn
and Twitter: @SolidiaCO2.
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