C-Voltaics Wins Goradia Innovation Prize
UH Nanotech Company Named Grand Prize Winner in Gulf Coast Competition
Juice droplet on carpet treated with C-Voltaic鈥檚 self-cleaning nano-coating; the juice
will not stain the carpet even after being left there for 24 hours.
Related News Article C-Voltaics, the nanotechnology company started by a 葫芦影业 physics
researcher, has been named the grand prize winner of this year鈥檚 Goradia Innovation
Prize.
The Houston Technology Center, a technology business incubator, announced the prize winners this week. The Goradia Innovation Prize is based on commercial potential, soundness of the business plan, the potential for job growth within the region and the likelihood of significant long-term success.
C-Voltaics was started by Seamus 鈥淪hay鈥� Curran, director of the UH Institute for NanoEnergy, and launched this fall in the University鈥檚 Energy Research Park. The company produces nano-coatings designed to protect fabric, wood, glass and a variety of other products from water, stains, dust and other environmental hazards.
Shay Curran, physics associate professor and director of UH鈥檚 Institute for Nanotechnology,
is the CEO of C-Voltaics.鈥淭his is confirmation on the direction we鈥檙e taking, confirmation from the marketplace
that there is a need for the product,鈥� said Curran, who is an associate professor
of physics. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 change what we鈥檙e doing. We still have deadlines.鈥�
The company received the Young Technology Award in August at the Commercialization of Micro- and Nanosystems Conference in The Netherlands, a competition for nanotechnology companies that are less than 10 years old. That competition is based on expected return on investment.
UH is a shareholder in C-Voltaics, the first nanotechnology company to be spun off from the University.
The Goradia Innovation Prize is named for Vijay Goradia and his wife, Dr. Maria Goradia, and their family, who donated $1 million to be distributed over 10 years. The Greater Houston Partnership donated $100,000, to be distributed over two years.
C-Voltaics will receive $50,000 for its grand prize win.
- Jeannie Kever, University Communication