‘Wall Street Journal’ spotlights grad’s company
A. Sue Weisler
Kevin Surace ’85, president and CEO of Serious Materials Inc., is a member of the RIT Board of Trustees.
ONLINE EXCLUSIVE
A company founded by Kevin Surace ’85 (electrical engineering) has been recognized in the ninth annual Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards.
Serious Materials Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., was recognized in “Environment” category for its EcoRock drywall substitute. Serious Materials began selling the product to a limited number of contractors early this year.
EcoRock, which will be priced to compete with premium drywall products, is made with recycled material and requires 80 percent less energy to make and produces 80 percent less carbon dioxide than standard gypsum-based drywall. The company expects to expand production and distribution over the next two years.
According to the Wall Street Journal, some judges wondered if a relatively high price would limit the product’s use. But Darlene Solomon, chief technology officer of Agilent Technologies and an Innovation Awards judge, called the product a “novel solution to a basic problem that has enormous impact.”
An article about Serious Materials is featured in the fall 2009 issue of RIT: The University Magazine.
Topics
Recommended News
-
November 20, 2024
![Five black men stand in a semicircle in a small garden in Kenya.]()
RIT professor helps to tackle energy access in rural Africa
Williams’ collaborative work tackles the subject of energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2015, the United Nations established Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.
-
November 14, 2024
![Sue and Bob Mather celebrate their 50th anniversary in Alaska.]()
Tiger Love: New major leads to lifetime of love
Bob Mather will forever remember the summer of 1970. He was attending a visual performance in American Sign Language at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf and Sue Mozzer was signing. -
November 13, 2024
![a young indian woman stands beside R I T president David Munson holding a plaque in front of a set of cement steps..]()
Ph.D. student finds joy in carbon composite 3D printing
Sai Sri Nidhi Munaganuru, from Hyderabad, India, anticipates completing her Ph.D. this summer from RIT’s mechanical and industrial engineering program. Her work extends the capability of carbon fiber technology through a new manufacturing approach that could eliminate high production costs, waste, and dependence on skilled labor.
-
November 13, 2024
![Chris Wairegi stands on a street corner in New York City with a smile on her face and hands clasped near her face.]()
Grad brings together Black women in the film industry
When walking into the workplace, one might assume that the staff would be as diverse as the local community it’s in. Chris Wairegi, a cinematographer based in Brooklyn, N.Y., found that this isn’t the case in the film industry.
