Awards and Recognition | Argonne National Laboratory

Five new startups join Argonne’s entrepreneurship program

Early-stage startups embed at Argonne to develop innovative technologies focused on critical scientific and energy challenges

By
Janelle Richmond
|
Lab-embedded fellowship connects startup founders with Argonne’s scientific expertise to accelerate breakthrough technologies.
A man stands in front and to the right of a podium at a speaking engagement.
CRI’s two-year fellowship connects startup founders with Argonne’s expertise, research facilities and commercialization support. (Image: Argonne National Laboratory)

As Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) celebrates its 10th anniversary, the entrepreneurship program at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is welcoming five startup founders to its 2026 cohort.

Over the next two years, the entrepreneurs will embed full time at Argonne, partnering with host scientists while gaining access to world-class research facilities, technical expertise and commercialization support. Together, they will advance technologies designed to address critical science and energy challenges while strengthening U.S. competitiveness, domestic manufacturing and economic growth.

“CRI innovators arrive with promising ideas and audacious goals. What makes CRI unique is the opportunity to pair those ideas with Argonne’s researchers and scientific capabilities, as well as Chicago area’s startup ecosystem. Together, we give founders the tools and support they need to achieve those goals.” — Dick Co, director of CRI

Over the past decade, CRI has demonstrated the impact of pairing entrepreneurs with the capabilities of a national laboratory. Since its founding, CRI companies have raised more than $732 million in follow-on funding and created 723 jobs, helping transform breakthrough scientific discoveries into commercial technologies.

“U.S. leadership in science and technology depends on breakthrough discoveries and the ability to translate them into lasting economic and societal impact,” said Paul Kearns, director of Argonne National Laboratory. ​“Argonne plays a unique role in helping bridge that gap by bringing together world-class facilities, scientific expertise and technical capabilities. CRI demonstrates what’s possible when transformative ideas have the support and environment needed to mature into technologies that strengthen our nation’s future.”

The five innovators selected for CRI Cohort 2026:

  • Emily Barber, founder and CEO of NanoChill Technologies, is advancing engineered radiative cooling paints and coatings that passively reduce building temperatures and reduce energy costs for consumers.
  • Jacob Bhoi, co-founder and CSO of Aura Life Science, is reprogramming biological clocks to enable economically viable photosynthetic biomanufacturing to produce chemicals and advanced materials.
  • Daniel Nothaft, founder and CEO of Uplift Geosystems, is developing advanced bipolar membranes that improve electrochemical separation processes used in industrial manufacturing.
  • Stephen Rudisill, vice president for materials of Captis Materials, is creating low-cost, printable thermoelectric generators that convert waste heat from data centers into usable electricity.
  • Benjamin Rupert, co-founder and CTO of PowerNaP Energy, is developing phosphorus-based, high-energy-density anode materials for sodium-ion batteries that support lower cost, domestically sourced energy storage.

“CRI innovators arrive with promising ideas and audacious goals,” said Dick Co, director of CRI. ​“What makes CRI unique is the opportunity to pair those ideas with Argonne’s researchers and scientific capabilities, as well as Chicago area’s startup ecosystem. Together, we give founders the tools and support they need to achieve those goals.”

The innovators were selected through a national application process followed by a two-stage pitch competition, where they were evaluated by investors, entrepreneurs, scientists and researchers.

CRI’s applications for its next cohort are now open through October 30 for early-stage founders working on energy and science technologies.

CRI is supported by DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization; the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, including the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office, Industrial Technologies Office, Building Technologies Office, Advanced Mining and Mineral Production Technologies Office, Transportation Technologies Office and Alternative Fuels and Feedstocks Office; DOE’s Office of Science, including the Advanced Scientific Computing Research program and Basic Energy Sciences; DOE’s Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office; and Argonne National Laboratory.

Janelle Richmond is a science and technology writer at Argonne, where she draws on her more than two decades of communications experience to translate complex research and innovation into compelling stories. In her role supporting Chain Reaction Innovations and other Argonne initiatives, Richmond creates content that highlights breakthrough technologies, entrepreneurial journeys and the real-world impact of deep science.

Chain Reaction Innovations is Argonne’s entrepreneurship program and a part of the DOE’s Office of Technology Commercialization’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program. The two-year fellowship enables entrepreneurs developing breakthrough science and energy technologies to work alongside Argonne researchers while leveraging the laboratory’s world-class facilities, scientific expertise and commercialization resources. The program helps founders de-risk emerging technologies, accelerate commercialization and build companies that create lasting economic and societal impact.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology by conducting leading-edge basic and applied research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://​ener​gy​.gov/​s​c​ience.