Program Nurtures Innovators in Oak Ridge, TN
Innovation Crossroads, a two-year program, focuses on energy and advanced manufacturing technologies.
Oak Ridge is a hub for innovators in the clean energy space, thanks in part to Innovation Crossroads, a two-year program for fellows focused on energy and advanced manufacturing technologies.
Created through a partnership between the Department of Energy, Tennessee Valley Authority and UT-Battelle, Innovation Crossroads welcomed its sixth cohort in 2022. The program attracts innovators from across the nation – including several founders and CEOs. This year, fellows are from states including Illinois, Indiana and Georgia.
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Focused on the Future
“Innovation Crossroads is critical in building a clean energy future,” says Dan Miller, program lead for Innovation Crossroads at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. “By embedding top entrepreneurial-minded fellows within Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they are able to leverage world-renowned experts and unique scientific resources to accelerate their path to market.”
In addition, the program provides business entrepreneurial training to eliminate the hurdles traditionally faced by early-stage clean-tech startups, he says.
“Our goal is to give the most promising innovators the best chance at developing a revolutionary new technology that will forever change our world for the better,” he says.
Lots of Runway
One of those promising innovators in the first cohort in 2018, who is now running change-making businesses in the region, is Mitch Ishmael of Shift Thermal.
Shift Thermal’s IHEX Technology is commercializing advanced ice thermal energy storage for HVAC, shifting cooling to be more sustainable, cost-effective and resilient. IHEX cooling systems generate cost savings and cool more efficiently and effectively.
Ishmael grew up in the region and attended Cornell University. He and another engineering Ph.D. founded the company to help solve the missing link in a sustainable energy future: energy storage. The company moved to Tennessee to join the inaugural cohort of Innovation Crossroads.
“It’s an amazing program,” Ishmael says. “What they offer is unbeatable.”
In addition to the extensive resources and expertise of ORNL, he says the length of the program allows entrepreneurs time to fine-tune technologies. For Shift Thermal, it was enough time for the innovators to rethink and refine their innovation.
“The fact that it is a two-year program is one of the great features,” Ishmael says. “For a very early-stage company, the program gives you a lot of runway or time to dig into what you are doing. Two years is a long time in the entrepreneurial world.”
From Research to Company
Another program alum is Anna Douglas, CEO and co-founder of SkyNano, a science-based technology company, focused on commercializing a free-market solution to carbon pollution.
A Vanderbilt University graduate, Douglas started the company to develop a novel electrochemical manufacturing technology for capturing and converting carbon dioxide from various sources (atmospheric, concentrated, flue gas) into valuable carbon-based materials.
SkyNano’s technology opens the possibility of capturing the carbon dioxide that power plants put into the air and turning it into something useful.
“Innovation Crossroads was transformative for SkyNano, and the bottom line is, we wouldn’t be where we are today without the support that was offered by Innovation Crossroads at such a critical time for us as a startup company,” Douglas says. “The program really helped us get our feet underneath us and was really helpful in the transition from a research project to a company.”
Ishmael and Douglas both say the region has a growing, science-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem. “The greater Knoxville-Oak Ridge region is an ideal place to start and grow a hardware technology company,” Douglas says.
“This region has unparalleled resources in terms of laboratory equipment and infrastructure, access to excellent scientific and engineering talent and just a real propensity for wanting to build important products and services.”
Anna Douglas, CEO and co-founder of SkyNano
Innovation Ecosystem
“East Tennessee is a prosperous, progressive economy forged from a heritage of innovation,” says Kelly Wampler, a business specialist at Innovation Crossroads at ORNL, noting the presence of research powerhouse ORNL and the University of Tennessee’s flagship campus.
“Startups in the region can leverage the expertise and infrastructures of these institutions to take world-changing ideas from research and development to the marketplace,” Wampler says.
“In addition, East Tennessee has a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem that offers mentorship and support to early-stage founders. The region is known for the changing seasons, outdoor adventure, a thriving food scene, and diverse arts and cultural attractions – making it an easy place to call home.”
Calutron Girls’ Legacy Lives On
Back in the 1940s when many men were serving in World War II, Oak Ridge saw an influx of women who moved to work at Clinton Engineer Works, a front for the Manhattan Project. While hired to operate calutrons (machines used to separate uranium isotopes), the women were unaware of the significance of their work. Given that the machines played a large role in developing the atomic bomb, the operators – appropriately called the Calutron Girls – largely shaped history.
Today, the legacy of the Calutron Girls lives on in Oak Ridge, as several area groups continue to support women in science. These include the Oak Ridge Chapter of Women in Nuclear (WIN), which is made up of nuclear industry professionals, and the Smoky Mountain Society of Women Engineers (SWE), which supports women in engineering and technology.
“I think continuing to have a focus on women in this industry helps carry on that legacy of the Calutron Girls and shows that we’re still supporting our mission here,” says Heather Pridemore, a process engineer for Consolidated Nuclear Security at the Y-12 National Security Complex.
As a member of both WIN and SWE, Pridemore has largely benefited from the support and opportunities each group provides.
“I think for Women in Nuclear, it definitely allows me to be in a group of like-minded women as far as caring about nuclear matters,” Pridemore says. “And then for Society of Women Engineers, I think I’ve gotten a lot of good professional development from attending Lunch & Learns and touring other industries.”
– Lindsey Hyde contributed to this article.
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