Scientific Leadership
Professor Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate (Chemistry)
Chairman, Scientific Advisory Board
Professor Hoffmann is currently Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Cornell University.
In 1981, Hoffmann was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on course of chemical reactions. Other notable rewards include: National Medal of Science (1983), Priestley Medal (1990) and the Lomonosov Gold Medal (2011). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society. Hoffmann is best known for introducing quantum mechanical ideas to organic, inorganic, and solid state chemistry.
Hoffmann graduated in 1955 from New York City’s Stuyvesant High School, where he won a Westinghouse science scholarship. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Columbia University (Columbia College) in 1958. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1962, while working under the direction of subsequent 1976 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner William N. Lipscomb, Jr. His best known research was then done collaborating with another Nobel Laureate, R.B. Woodward, the preeminent organic chemist of the 20th century. In 1965, Hoffmann joined the Department of Chemistry at Cornell University. In his recent research he works on solid state compounds of lithium.
Professor Stephen O’Brien, The City University of New York, Scientific Advisory Board
Stephen O’Brien is currently an Associate Professor of Chemistry at The City University of New York (CUNY), as well as a Principal Investigator for the CUNY Energy Institute. Professor O’Brien received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Oxford University.
Steve is focused on materials for clean energy technology, power electronics, capacitors and transistors, LEDs, semiconductor electronics, chemicals, coatings, and materials manufacturing. He is experienced in technology transfer, tech start-ups, intellectual property, financial structuring, small business innovation, consulting.
As a Principal Investigator Steve has designed and managed multi investigator research programs in energy research, nanoscale science and engineering. He has been a leader and advisor of research projects to a team of faculty, Ph.D.s and post-doctoral research scientists..Steve has published over 80 articles as lead author or co-author in research journals. He has several pending patents, including one filed with Columbia/CUNY surrounding new methods for the preparation of electronic materials for the semiconductor industry.
Lawrence Swonger, Director and Technical Advisor
Lead Inventor
Mechanical engineer with over 20 years of process design and automation experience.
Senior Management
Jerome I. Feldman, Chairman Emeritus
Mr. Feldman is currently Chairman of the Board of the alpha-En Corporation. He is also Chairman of the New England Colleges Fund and a Trustee of Northern Westchester Hospital Foundation.
Mr. Feldman founded National Patent Development Corporation (NPD), which was devoted to searching out new inventions and assisting major corporations in licensing their technologies. Among the technologies Mr. Feldman helped introduce were: soft contact lenses (1971 with Bausch & Lomb); surgical staples (via U.S. Surgical, which was sold to Tyco for $3 billion in 1998); and high silica glass to store nuclear waste (via Duratek, which was later sold to the Carlyle Group). Mr. Feldman has taken eleven companies public, and holds a JD from New York University.
Dr. Landon Oakes, CTO
Landon Oakes brings a decade of experience in the battery field to alpha-En. As a battery scientist for both large and small corporations, Landon’s expertise is centered on coating processes and cell manufacturing of both lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries. Landon has a broad portfolio of patents and publications in the energy storage field.
Management
Tom Suppanz, CFO
Former Investment Banker on Wall Street with over 30 yrs experience in capital formation for small and micro-cap companies.
