Santiago Rojas-Carbonell mission is to be a bridge between the technical and commercialization aspects of technologies. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), M.S. in Nanosciences and Microsystems and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (advised by Prof. Plamen Atanassov, dissertation with distinction, University of New Mexico). Up until May 2019, Santiago was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Delaware working with Prof. Yushan Yan. His areas of research encompass electrochemistry, ion-conducting polymers, and lithium-ion batteries. His focus has been on finding out ways to make power system such as fuel cells, electrolyzers, and batteries more affordable.
Santiago has developed the managerial skills required for the commercialization of advanced technologies during his MBA with a concentration in Finance (University of New Mexico), as well through his experience at multiple startups, which were aimed at recycling lithium and cobalt from lithium-ion batteries, and commercializing an enzymatic fuel cell.
Santiago led the effort to secure $100K in funding from the EDGE grant of the Delaware Division of Small Business, and $150K in grant funding from the Unidel Foundation. Also was part on the writing the grants that lead to securing $4.3MM from the DOE-ARPA-E; seed funding of $75K from the Blue Hen Proof of Concept program and $50K from the University of Delaware FastPass. Santiago worked to make W7energy be selected as one of the 5 finalists at the 2019 W. L. Gore & Associates Advanced Materials Innovation Day. With Santiago’s experience and training, he will continue to tackle the technical complexities and opportunities within W7energy LLC, while keeping the commercial feasibility in mind to enable the commercialization of our advanced hydroxide exchange membranes and ionomers.