WABI Interviews Student, Shaler About Orono Startup
WABI (Channel 5) reported on an Orono-based company founded by two University of Maine graduates that has been awarded $224,996 from the National Science Foundation. The grant will allow Revolution Research, Inc. to create a prototype for the first completely eco-friendly thermal insulation foam board. Nadir Yildirim, a graduate of UMaine’s innovation engineering program and current Ph.D. student in the Wood Science and Technology Program in the School of Forest Resources, and Alexander Chasse, a 2013 civil engineering graduate from UMaine who works at the university conducting nanomaterial research, created RRI to develop recyclable and reusable products using cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) for several industries. “There is no product on the market that can compete with this one,” Yildirim said of the foam board. Stephen Shaler, director of the School of Forest Resources and Yildirim’s adviser, told WABI it’s everyone’s job to contribute to protecting the environment. “As we have increasing populations, as we have pressures on the environment, energy demands and the impact that has on sustainability and on the environment; we need to do things in a better way. We need green materials,” Shaler said. The Bangor Daily News also reported on the company.