Vive Crop Protection / en Renewable energy research, clean-tech startups from łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ take centre stage /news/renewable-energy-research-clean-tech-startups-u-t-take-centre-stage <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Renewable energy research, clean-tech startups from łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ take centre stage</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-04-17-summit-nanoleaf-display.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ax0rdxkl 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-04-17-summit-nanoleaf-display.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=WvNX4dNy 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-04-17-summit-nanoleaf-display.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=Pz8vBycT 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-04-17-summit-nanoleaf-display.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ax0rdxkl" alt="photo of conference attendees checking out Nanoleaf display"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-04-17T09:16:38-04:00" title="Monday, April 17, 2017 - 09:16" class="datetime">Mon, 04/17/2017 - 09:16</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Nanoleaf was just one of the łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ startups at the Toronto Sustainability Summit (all photos by Johnny Guatto)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/chris-sorensen" hreflang="en">Chris Sorensen</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Christopher Sorensen</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/innovation" hreflang="en">Innovation</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/sustainability" hreflang="en">Sustainability</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/nanoleaf" hreflang="en">Nanoleaf</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/phantin" hreflang="en">Phantin</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/vive-crop-protection" hreflang="en">Vive Crop Protection</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/nanotechnology" hreflang="en">Nanotechnology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/lighting" hreflang="en">Lighting</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Toronto Sustainability Summit </div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>If Silicon Valley is where big minds fixate on small problems – a better way to hail a taxi or swap photos on your smartphone – then the University of Toronto may soon be known as the place where the world’s biggest, most intractable issues are solved.&nbsp;</p> <p>That was the underlying message at łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ’s recent Toronto Sustainability Summit, held at the MaRS Centre in downtown Toronto.&nbsp;</p> <p>The sold-out event brought together leading łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ researchers, key government officials and senior industry executives to discuss ways to work together to tackle planet-threatening climate change. Reza Moridi, Ontario’s minister of research, innovation and science, took the opportunity to announce a new, $7 million competition designed to develop breakthrough technologies to help the province’s industrial plants reduce greenhouse gas emissions.&nbsp;</p> <h3><u><a href="/news/u-t-brings-city-together-toronto-sustainability-summit">Read more about the summit</a></u></h3> <p>“Universities have a crucial role to play,” said <strong>Meric Gertler</strong>, łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ’s president, offering a long list of research areas, from biofuels research to environmental law, where łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ excels. “In fact, among universities worldwide, I was delighted to recently discover that łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ is the seventh leading producer of research and scholarship in environmental research and environmental sciences –&nbsp;and we’re third in North America behind Berkeley and Harvard.”</p> <p>Over the past three years alone, łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ attracted more than $300 million in funding for clean technology and renewable energy research. The university boasts more than 550 faculty working in the space, including 11 Canada Research Chairs.&nbsp;</p> <p>The breadth of łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ’s sustainability research, focusing on subjects both large and small, was on full display at the summit.&nbsp;</p> <p><u>Professor&nbsp;<a href="/news/five-visions-future-energy-science-literacy-week-panel"><strong>David Zingg</strong>, the director of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies</a>,</u> talked about trying to overcome the challenges of reducing airplane emissions – namely the sky-high price of developing new aircraft types – by applying high-fidelity aerodynamic shape optimization to aircraft designs.</p> <p>At the other end of the spectrum, <u><a href="/news/10000-greenhouses-professor-david-sinton-awarded-ewr-steacie-memorial-fellowship"><strong>David Sinton</strong>, a professor in the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</a></u>, explained how the study of small-scale fluid dynamics is yielding big insights by turning harmful carbon dioxide into useful products like fuels.&nbsp;</p> <p>łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ is not just creating climate change and sustainability knowledge. It’s implementing it, too. Many of łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ’s researchers are working in partnership with industry or launching their own companies. Some 14 startups in clean tech and renewable energy were launched&nbsp;over the past three years.</p> <p><strong>Cynthia Goh</strong> is&nbsp;the founding director of <u><a href="http://www.impactcentre.ca/">łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ’s Impact Centre development hub</a>, </u>the academic director of<u><a href="http://entrepreneurs.utoronto.ca/"> University of Toronto Entrepreneurship</a></u> and&nbsp;a professor of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science. She cited one young one company with a potentially bright future that she co-founded with <strong>Cheng Lu</strong>. It’s called Phantin and it makes nano-coating that repels dust from solar panels, boosting their energy production.&nbsp;</p> <h3><u><a href="/news/here-comes-sun-phantin">Read &nbsp;more about Phantin</a></u></h3> <p>The hurdles new clean-tech companies face are particularly daunting. Alumnus<u> <a href="/news/meet-darren-anderson-vive-crop-protection"><strong>Darren Anderson</strong> is the founding president of Vive Crop Protection</a></u>, which uses nanotechnology to improve the delivery of fertilizer and pesticides to farmers’ crops. Anderson told the panel it takes far longer to build a clean-tech company than one based on a smartphone app.&nbsp;</p> <p>“We launched our first product literally a month before our tenth anniversary,” said Anderson, who started Vive in 2006 from łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ’s chemistry department.&nbsp;</p> <p>Clean-tech also tends to be expensive, which can turn&nbsp;off venture capital, or VC, investors. &nbsp;</p> <p>“Anytime I say we’re a clean-tech company that’s focused on sustainability, the VC just cringes,” said <strong>Gimmy Chu</strong>, the CEO of <u><a href="https://nanoleaf.me/en/">green lighting company Nanoleaf </a></u>and another łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ alum. “So the question is: how do you [build] the business model?”&nbsp;</p> <p>Nanoleaf’s solution: make a LED light bulb that’s both eye-catching and two times more efficient than those already on the market – and then follow it up with modular lighting panels that look more like art installations than light fixtures.&nbsp;</p> <h3><u><a href="/news/federal-government-backs-three-u-t-startups-and-their-clean-tech-innovations">Read more about Nanoleaf</a></u></h3> <p>Fortunately, there’s an expanding universe of accelerators and incubators on the łÔąĎ±¬ÁĎ campus to help guide today’s budding entrepreneurs. One of those programs is the Rotman School of Management’s Creative Destruction Lab. The nine-month program pairs startups with experienced technology entrepreneurs and investors to help them scale up their businesses.&nbsp;</p> <p><u><a href="http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/FacultyAndResearch/Faculty/FacultyBios/Blundell"><strong>Richard Blundell</strong>, an adjunct professor at Rotman</a>,</u>&nbsp;said the biggest challenge facing startups in the clean-tech space is seldom technology-related. Rather, it’s finding an innovative way to succeed in a crowded marketplace.</p> <p>“If the business doesn’t make money,” said Blundell, “then it will fail.”</p> <p><img alt="photo of panel at summit" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4265 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-04-17-summit-panel-nanoleaf.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p><em>(<strong>Gimmy Chu</strong> shows one of the Nanoleaf light bulbs to, from left: <strong>Tom Rand</strong>, <strong>Richard Blundell</strong>, <strong>Cynthia Goh</strong> and <strong>Darren Anderson</strong>)&nbsp;</em></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 17 Apr 2017 13:16:38 +0000 lanthierj 106826 at Meet Darren Anderson of Vive Crop Protection /news/meet-darren-anderson-vive-crop-protection <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Meet Darren Anderson of Vive Crop Protection</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2012-12-11T10:08:56-05:00" title="Tuesday, December 11, 2012 - 10:08" class="datetime">Tue, 12/11/2012 - 10:08</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Darren Anderson at the launch of TechnoLABS with post-doctoral Fellow Andrea Nagy of the Department of Chemistry (photo by Diana Tyszko)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/christine-elias" hreflang="en">Christine Elias</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Christine Elias</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/features" hreflang="en">Features</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/commercialization" hreflang="en">Commercialization</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/chemistry" hreflang="en">Chemistry</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/vive-crop-protection" hreflang="en">Vive Crop Protection</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/startups" hreflang="en">Startups</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><em>In 2006, alumnus <strong>Darren Anderson </strong>was one of six University of Toronto scientists with the Department of Chemistry who banded together to launch Vive Crop Protection. </em></p> <p><em>Today, Anderson is chief technology officer for the company, which&nbsp;</em><em>develops products, including pesticides that help grow food more efficiently and with less impact on the environment.&nbsp;Vive's formulations have the potential to dramatically reduce the amount of harmful chemicals used by farmers, leading to cleaner air, soil and water. </em></p> <p><em>Anderson oversees all technical direction at the company, including product development, strategic direction and intellectual property. Writer <strong>Christine Elias</strong>&nbsp;of the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science </em><em>asked Anderson to share his thoughts on&nbsp;entrepreneurship, the challenges facing today's students and why&nbsp;it’s important to give back.</em></p> <p><strong>Tell us a bit about&nbsp;your time at the University of Toronto.</strong></p> <p>I spent eight years at the University of Toronto – four as an undergraduate and four as a graduate. There are too many memories to choose from when answering this question!<br> &nbsp;<br> But the best memory is of the night I met my wife. I was out with some friends at Einstein's and she was playing pool with her friends. That was six years ago and we just got married in September!</p> <p><strong>Why do you continue to be involved with the university through such projects as&nbsp;TechnoLABS?</strong></p> <p>When we were first getting started, we had a ton of people who were willing to give their time to advise us – back then, we were brand new at this and needed a lot of help. Without our advisors, we wouldn't have gotten to where we are today. Helping the next generation of entrepreneurs is just returning the favour.</p> <p>The IOS (Institute of Optical Sciences) does fantastic work and everyone at Vive is highly supportive. Without <strong>Cynthia Goh</strong>, director of the IOS, and her network, we wouldn't have gotten started, and I'm sure the same is true for all of the new companies coming from the IOS activities.</p> <p>The most unique aspect of the IOS program is that it uses students as the vector for entrepreneurship, instead of the activities being led by faculty or technology transfer professionals. This is the key – students are intimately familiar with the technology, are at a stage in their lives where risk-taking is appropriate and are thirsty to learn. When you combine all these attributes, you get an ideal entrepreneur!</p> <p><strong>Do you have any&nbsp;advice for today's students?</strong></p> <p>The world is always changing. It's almost impossible to predict exactly what the job market will look like when you graduate, much less what it will look like when you're in your forties and mid-career. I'm a chemist and many chemists in the pharmaceutical industry who were hired 20 years ago were convinced that they had jobs for life – but the pharma industry is losing a lot of jobs right now. I don't think that careers for life really exist anymore. You need&nbsp;an education that gives you lots of options&nbsp;–&nbsp;and keep in mind that you can probably pursue many different careers regardless of what your degree is in.</p> <p><strong>Any advice specifically for budding entrepreneurs?</strong></p> <p>Start now! One of the biggest barriers to starting a company is...starting. This can be particularly true when you're in school, because the university is a safe environment – not like the big scary outside world! But unless you can get over that –and really start building your business – you're wasting time. Besides, if you're fresh out of school, what do you have to lose? This is the best time in your life to take risks and even if your new business fails, think about what you'll learn.</p> <p><strong>What do you look forward to in&nbsp;2013 for Vive Crop Protection?</strong></p> <p>Our products help people grow food more effectively. In the last&nbsp;two years, we've shown incredible benefits in greenhouse and lab studies. This year we're expanding our testing under real-world agricultural conditions in locations around the world. It's really great to see the impact of our products for farmers growing real crops – that's the reason I'm excited to get out of bed every morning.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/Darren-Anderson_12_12_12.jpg</div> </div> Tue, 11 Dec 2012 15:08:56 +0000 sgupta 4915 at