Ayse Asatekin is an associate professor and the Steve and Kristen Remondi Faculty Fellow in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Tufts University. She is an entrepreneurial academic that keeps her home base in academia, but has been a founding scientist and inventor on two university spinouts in the water sector, the most recent of which, ZwitterCo, just raised $6M to continue commercializing their technology to use zwitterions to coat membranes that are resistant to fouling and can treat waste streams with fats, oils, grease and more. 

Ayse provided a ton of insight into conducting research with an eye towards scale and commercialization, including the importance of de-risking inventions at an early stage in anticipation of what investors and industry might ask. She spoke very candidly about her past experiences in spinning out technologies, what she has learned, what she would advise young inventors considering doing the same, the importance of the team, and much more. It's an encouraging episode for any listeners that want to invent for commercialization but still remain in academia, dedicated to research. Enjoy! 

More about Ayse

Ayse Asatekin received her bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering and chemistry from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. She went on to receive her Ph.D. in chemical engineering through the Program in Polymer Science and Technology (PPST) at MIT. She pursued her post-doctoral work with Prof. Karen K. Gleason, also at MIT. She co-founded Clean Membranes, Inc., a start-up company that commercialized the polyacrylonitrile-based membrane technology that she began developing during her doctoral research, and worked as its Principal Scientist before joining the Tufts faculty in 2012. Novel membrane technologies developed in her lab are currently being commercialized at ZwitterCo, Inc., where she serves as the Senior Scientific Advisor. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, Massachusetts Clean Energy Council's Catalyst Award, and the Turkish American Scientists and Scholars Young Scholar Award. Her research interests are in developing novel membranes for clean water and energy-efficient separations. She is also interested in multi-functional membranes, controlling surface chemistry for biomedical applications, polymer science, and energy storage. To connect with Ayse, visit https://engineering.tufts.edu/chbe/people/faculty/ayse-asatekin

More about ZwitterCo 

ZwitterCo is a national industrial membrane provider, delivering patented filtration technologies that are durable and fouling resistant. The company recently closed a $5.9m fundraising round led by Mann+Hummel Corporate Ventures, and has been recognized by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center as a leader among clean water technologies. ZwitterCo’s cutting-edge membrane chemistry, paired with the company’s deep domain expertise, gives industrial processing facilities and their partners a pathway into the next generation of water treatment, precision separation, and resource recapture. For more information, visit https://www.zwitterco.com/.

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