112: Commercializing Ocean-Inspired Sustainable Fibers (ft. Dr. Chris Mekeel)

It's a Material World | Materials Science Podcast

As a new sustainable biopolymer fiber, seaweed boasts a wide development and application space. If this material could be engineered to make personalized products, its combination of light weight and high air permeability could entail promising high-end products while being infinitely reproducible and environmentally friendly.

In today's episode, we welcome Dr. Chris Mekeel, the current VP of R&D at Keel Labs, a company that takes inspiration from the ocean to create biobased fiber products. With him, we discuss:

🔹The differences between lab-scale, pilot-scale, demonstration-scale, and commercial-scale operations.

🔹Advice for how to make the change from school to industry back to graduate school.

🔹How a VP balances the need for innovation with timelines and budgeting.

🔹The challenges in using biobased materials in different environments.

🔹And much more!

🔹

We hope you enjoy the episode! And as always, let us know what topics you’d like us to cover next!

Learn more about our MSE Career Development Online Course, which includes more industry-specific information and advice.

https://www.mseacademy.com/courses/students-tier-2

Join our Discord community! You can meet other passionate materials scientists and engineers from around the world, discuss the latest breakthroughs in MSE, share materials-related memes, and get career advice from experts in the field.

https://discord.gg/49dCV3W4eN

Check out our MSE-themed merchandise if you want to support us or simply show off your love of materials science!

https://www.itsamaterialworldpodcast.com/shop

For shorter segments and full video podcasts, subscribe to our channel on YouTube. For bloopers, audiograms, and interesting materials science articles, follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Feel free to message us on our social media platforms if you have any feedback or recommendations for future episodes, or email us directly at [e-mail]. Finally, reach out to David Yeh and Punith Upadhya on LinkedIn if you'd like to chat about the latest breakthroughs in MSE!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpUXt6ui8iC5npSizlfIJ2A

https://www.instagram.com/itsamaterialworldpodcast/

http://linkedin.com/company/it-s-a-material-world-podcast/

https://twitter.com/ItsAMatWorldPod

Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed by either guests or hosts in this show are their own, and do not represent the opinions of the companies or organizations for which they are affiliated.

#Sustainable Fibers #Seaweeds #Ocean-Inspired

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Timestamps:

- Teaser (0:00 – 0:43)

- Intro, Holidays, Episode Highlights (0:43 – 4:48)

- Introducing Dr. Chris Mekeel (4:48 – 5:40)

- From technical to VP-level (5:40 – 7:38)

- Lab, pilot, demonstration, and commercial scale (7:38 – 13:51)

- Balancing innovation & timelines (13:51 – 20:50)

- Manufacturing setting considerations (20:50 – 23:44)

- Deciding to pursue fundamental knowledge or applied (23:44 – 26:38)

- Using biomaterials in new environments (26:38 – 29:21)

- Taking inspiration from past work (29:21 – 32:08)

- Deciding who to partner with (32:08 – 35:23)

- How a technology can spread to other fields (35:23 – 40:31)

- How you can make going back to school work (40:31 – 45:45)

- Conclusion (45:45 – 46:04)

- MSE Academy (46:04 – 47:09)