Y-Carbon, Inc. today announced that its founder and Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Ranjan Dash has been recognized by Technology Review magazine as one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35 for his contribution in development and commercialization of tunable nanoporous carbon. Selected from more than 300 nominees by a panel of expert judges and the editorial staff of Technology Review, the TR35 is an elite group of accomplished young innovators who exemplify the spirit of innovation. Their work--spanning medicine, computing, communications, nanotechnology, and more--is changing our world.
Over the last 7 years - initially as a Ph.D. student at Drexel University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering (PhD advisor - Prof. Yury Gogotsi) and later as a co-founder of Y-Carbon, Inc., Dash contributed to the development and commercialization of a simple and scalable manufacturing process that allows the synthesis of tunable nanoporous carbon. The significance of his achievement has been recognized by the scientific community with a number of awards including the 2009 R&D 100 Award, 2007 best thesis in the field of carbon awarded by Elsevier (worldwide competition) and Drexel University's 2009 Young Alumni Entrepreneur Award.
"The TR35 honors young innovators for accomplishments that are poised to have a dramatic impact on the world as we know it," said Jason Pontin, editor in chief and publisher of Technology Review magazine. "We celebrate their success and look forward to their continued advancement of technology in their respective fields."
Ranjan and the other TR35 winners for 2009 will be featured in the September/October issue of Technology Review magazine and honored at the EmTech@MIT 2009 Conference to be held at MIT in Cambridge, MA. September 22-24, 2009.
Ken Malone, CEO of Y-Carbon said "Ranjan is a driven young man focused on taking his innovations to market. His personality, work ethic and natural aptitude for both science and business are coming together to build his company, Y-Carbon, Inc., into a serious player in advanced materials for energy storage, water desalination and treatment of human diseases."
Yury Gogotsi, Trustee Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and co-founder of Y-Carbon, Inc. added "This is a well deserved recognition for Ranjan. I could observe his professional growth during his PhD study at Drexel University. Ranjan was the first Drexel student to earn PhD and MBA degrees at the same time. Therefore, when it came to commercialization of our nanoporous carbon technology, I could not imagine a better person for the CTO position."
"I am happy to be part of the TR35 team. This award would not have been possible without being associated with the tunable nanoporous carbon technology and Prof. Gogotsi's research group at Drexel University," said Dash. "Support from the Pennsylvania Nanomaterial Commercialization Center, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Innovation Partnership and the Wharton Small Business Development Corporation helped in transforming the technology from Drexel University to Y-Carbon".