Credit: Image courtesy of William Morris

1) You have broad experiences in research, commercializing products, and business strategy. Tell us about your career path.

I completed a Masters in Chemistry at the University of Manchester (2003 − 2007), followed by a PhD at theUniversity of California Los Angeles (2007 − 2012) in the laboratory of Omar Yaghi. My research in the Yaghi laboratory focused on identifying and characterizing chemically stable metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Following the identification of MOFs, I looked to perform chemical transformations on MOFs through postmodification and evaluated the application of these materials in gas adsorption and separation applications. I then attended a postdoc at Northwestern University in Chad Mirkin’s laboratory. In the Mirkin lab, I continued working on MOFs, evaluating how these materials behaved at the nanoscale and, in collaboration with others, how they interact with biological systems. During this time, I also had the opportunity to learn about lithography and DNA-mediated assembly. While at Northwestern, I first heard about Numat, a company focused on commercializing MOFs. I joined Numat in 2015, looking to leverage my scientific training to support Numat’s mission to commercialize MOFs. While at Numat, I have served in several roles, including senior chemist, director of R&D, and today, director of business development.

Over nearly twenty years, my scientific interests have focused on MOFs. During this period, the questions I have asked about these materials have changed significantly. As a graduate student and postdoc, I focused on fundamental research questions. Over the past ten years, my focus alongside the Numat team has shifted to understanding how this class of novel materials can be deployed in commercial applications. This work has focused on applied research, answering real-world testing, scaling, product integration, compliance, and safety questions. Alongside this technical work, I have developed business cases, worked on federally sponsored research programs, and developed robust intellectual property portfolios to support commercialization. My work as an industrial chemist at a growth-stage company draws on many of the skills I established as a graduate chemist as I look to communicate the importance of the work Numat is performing.

2) Can you share why you decided to leave academia and pursue a career in industry?

I was looking to take the next step in my scientific career after my postdoc, and I evaluated opportunities both in academia and industry. Like today, the academic job market was competitive, and I wasn’t offered a position in academia. However, I also looked at opportunities in the chemical industry through recruiting events held at Northwestern University. It was there that I learned Numat was recruiting chemists with experience in MOF chemistry, where I was consequently hired into my first industrial role.

As a postdoc, if I had been offered an academic position before I became aware of the role of Numat, I would probably be working as an academic today. In hindsight, I am glad I transitioned from academia to industry for multiple reasons. First, the chemistry questions one has to answer in an industrial setting around applied research are different, and I have learned a lot about applied chemistry. Second, working at a fast-paced growth-stage company with a multidisciplinary group to commercialize a chemical technology has been fun. Finally, contributing to some of the first commercializations of a technology I worked on through my PhD has been very rewarding.

3) What do you think MOFs are most promising for and why aren’t they widely used yet?

The academic literature today is filled with fundamental research on many MOF applications, including adsorption, separation, sensing, catalysis, and biology. In these reports, MOFs often show great promise with improved performance over current materials, enabling new functions or reducing energy costs associated with chemical processes. Although promising, only a handful of MOF applications have transitioned from fundamental research to commercialization. Drawing parallels with other novel chemistries, including lithium-ion batteries and graphene, these materials technologies can take many decades to transition from discovery to commercial deployment. Applications enabled by new materials, including MOFs, face challenges that must be overcome to transition from fundamental research to commercialization. These challenges can be broadly bucketed into applied research and include but are not limited to material scaling, post-processing, integration into a device, prototype testing, safety, and compliance. Each topic must be addressed for a new material class to be commercialized. Therefore, these commercial transitions take a lot of time and resources.

Alongside applied research, the business case for each application where a new material is to be deployed must be developed. This critical component can’t be overlooked if MOFs are to realize broader implementation. A business case should be matured alongside applied research. As development costs and timelines are longer for deploying any new material than applying incumbent material, the business case must justify the development costs of applied research in this area.

4) What major challenges are Numat trying to solve?

Numat has investigated multiple business cases for MOFs, identifying two initial markets where MOFs can address major challenges: electronics and extreme environments. Numat has developed two products for these markets: ION-X® MOFs for subatmospheric gas delivery systems in electronics markets and SNTL™ MOFs for gas filtration in extreme environments. In both cases, customer adoption of these products is driven by safety considerations. ION-X stores toxic gases subatmospherically that are used at global semiconductor manufacturing sites. SNTL is deployed in protective filters and fabrics to capture and degrade toxic gases and chemical warfare agents. Across these products, Numat has spent ten years completing the applied research required to bring these materials to commercialization. This time involves establishing business cases, customers, and distribution partners for these products. To achieve this commercial success, Numat has built a multidisciplinary team, a domestic MOF manufacturing site, and dedicated many people hours to addressing applied research questions.

Today, we are producing MOFs at a multi-ton scale and deploying them in products, enabling a profit-generating business. Numat is looking to accelerate further MOF commercialization efforts, focusing on addressing major energy challenges, including carbon capture, water management, and low-energy separations. Across these applications, we are looking to use our prior experience in MOF commercialization to accelerate MOFs into first-of-a-kind demonstrations. For example, Numat now has a capacity for nearly three hundred tons of MOF production in the United States. Leveraging this production capacity and experience scaling MOFs, we will enable first-of-a-kind demonstrations that use MOFs on rapid timelines.

5) Does Numat collaborate with academia and what is the dynamic of this like?

In a fast-moving field like MOFs, it is critical to maintain collaborations and an awareness of the work being performed in academia and other research organizations like National Laboratories. As a growth-stage company spun out of Northwestern University, Numat shares close ties with the laboratory of Professor Farha, one of the founders of Numat. In collaboration with Professor Farha, we have accessed grant funding to support graduate students and postdocs, enabling collaborations between Numat and Northwestern. We have also collaborated with others, providing opinions on MOF commercialization, publishing papers, and looking to access grant funding. Beyond Numat, spinout companies from universities and large companies are looking to bring new MOF research to commercialization. In addition to collaborating with academia, Numat attends conferences, reviews MOF literature, and hires employees from leading academic MOF labs to join the Numat team.

6) The MOF field has grown so large in the last few decades. Which areas do you think need to be further developed?

Seeing how the MOF field has grown since the initial discoveries and reports on these materials has been amazing. I was recently in Singapore for the international MOF conference, and the diversity of research on MOFs continues to expand. As a result, many of the early challenges associated with these materials have been overcome. These challenges include improvements in the chemical stability of MOFs and improvements in the synthesis techniques used to produce MOFs. Today, material discovery is happening at a faster cadence, and studies of the applications of MOFs in a broader range of applications continue.

Based on my experience, especially over the last ten years, there needs to be a continued focus on applied research on MOFs if more commercial applications of MOFs are to be realized. In this area, there is not one challenge but multiple challenges that must be overcome to debottleneck MOF commercialization. I recently wrote about this topic along with authors from other leading industrial companies1. This manuscript highlights multiple challenges that must be overcome to transition MOFs through applied research to commercialization, including MOF scaling, forming, washing, activation, and testing under real-world conditions. For example, synthesis at an early technology readiness level (TRL) might only require grams of MOF to perform characterization and performance studies. However, tons, if not kilotons, of MOF, might be required to commercialize a product that deploys a MOF. Synthesizing MOFs at these scales requires new equipment, people from different disciplines, and will incur significant development costs. This is true across all aspects of applied research where multidisciplinary teams, new equipment, and significant capital are required. As well as optimizing these processes and commercializing MOFs, it is important to establish operations that are compliant, safe, and that generate a profit.

Today, drawing parallels with fundamental research, this applied research is happening quicker than ever before, with many researchers now looking at the scaling, integration, and real-world testing of MOFs. Applied research on MOFs is becoming a topic at conferences and in publications, enabling researchers to learn from others. Further, focus on applied research can take the potential of MOFs from research articles to the real world. This work is especially important in a world where we’re looking to identify technologies for decarbonization, address water scarcity, and reduce energy usage. If MOFs can realize a small fraction of applications discussed in the academic literature, they will be one of the most important material discoveries of the past twenty-five years.

7) Do you have any suggestions for researchers to make their work more applicable to the real world?

For any researcher interested in making their research more applicable to the real world, many things can be done today. First, think about the next set of experiments that could be performed to advance the TRL of the research being performed. Depending on the targeted application, this work can take many forms, but it will likely look to establish performance under real-world conditions. Second, evaluate the business case for your technology. Answering questions like what you are looking to enable, what technology are you competing against, who the customer is, and what scale you will have to produce it at. Third, establish how you could bring your technology to commercialization. This work might involve partnering with a company or establishing a company to mature the technology to commercialization.

Today, more resources, funding, and support are available than ever to transition new materials through applied research to real-world applications. Capital is available from both private and government sources to enable applied research, with certain funding sources focused on applied research and available exclusively to build small businesses. For example, in the United States, the Department of Energy, through the Inflation Reduction Act, has made tax credits and funding available that enable first-of-a-kind demonstrations of MOFs. Furthermore, incubators looking to support the commercialization of fundamental research are becoming more common. In Chicago alone, we have mHub, Chain Reaction Innovations, The Garage, and Resurgence, all looking to accelerate chemical technologies.

8) Finally, what developments are you most excited about?

I am not sure if it is excitement or nerves, but today, there is a great driving force for accelerating new materials technologies to commercialization. This driving force is global warming and the need to reach “net zero,” ideally by 2050. Net zero is a bold goal; going from 36.8 gigatons of emissions today to zero will require completely reimagining how we generate and use energy. New materials technologies will play a critical role across a broad range of applications if we’re to achieve net zero, forcing us to rethink how we harvest, store, separate, and the energy sources of the future. To apply new materials to net zero challenges, business cases, and funding must be developed to facilitate the transition of these technologies to commercialization. The initial signs are promising, with governments establishing tax policies, companies pledging to net zero goals, and a larger focus on demonstrating technologies at relevant scales to make an impact.

In a net-zero world, I am excited about the role MOFs can play and how the Numat team can accelerate this work.

This interview was conducted by Jet-Sing Lee, Senior Editor of Communications Materials.