SC’s MATRIC ‘Reinventing World Again’
Charleston Gazette
October 4, 2006
By Joe Morris
Staff Writer
South Charleston used to be a world capital of chemical research, then its job picture turned bleak. Now, it’s a research hub in the making again.
The nonprofit Mid-Atlantic Technology Research and Innovation Center, founded 2 1/2 years ago, resides in the laboratory building left vacant by Dow Chemical Co. and once home to world-class research undertaken by Dow and its predecessor, Union Carbide.
Relying on seed money largely from private donors, pro-bono help from Charleston-area professionals and the expertise of Dow retirees, MATRIC has grown into a self-sustaining, moneymaking research firm, pioneering everything from biodiesel technology to super-durable plastics.
“Dow scientists used to invent the world here,” says George Keller, a retired Carbide researcher who’s vice chairman of MATRIC’s board. “We’re reinventing the world again.”
MATRIC’s board and staff will celebrate the center’s second year at an invitation-only reception today at the Clay Center.
There’s plenty to celebrate, says Keith Pauley, MATRIC’s president and chief executive officer.
The center now has about $6.4 million in contracts, and it has achieved a phenomenal 51 percent win rate on the competitive bids it seeks. The contracts have spurred steady hiring, with staff rising from about five in 2005 to 47 today, and that number should rise to more than 50 before the end of October, Pauley said. And two private companies, based out of MATRIC’s building, have been spun off.
“The goal is to create a new technology economy here,” said Pauley, a St. Albans native and nuclear engineer who worked for NASA at its Johnson Space Center in Houston before joining MATRIC.
One research success can spawn others, and in the right environment, researchers serve to inspire their peers, he said.
MATRIC has the potential to generate the same kind of scientific, and economic, energy that Dow and Union Carbide once generated, Keller says. “We can create a community of high-paying jobs and exciting work,” he said.
Government contracts supply the bulk of MATRIC’s contract money, and the vast majority of those contracts are with NASA. One of its bigger government contracts is to work with federal Department of Energy scientists to reduce the costs of stripping carbon dioxide from fossil fuel plants.
But two of MATRIC’s bigger success stories started as contracts with private companies. One project developed a see-through bulletproof polymer material that could be used as safety masks for military personnel or as a component in sturdier headlight casings, among other applications. The possibilities warranted the creation of a company to seek them out, and Transparent Armor LLC was born.
MATRIC’s other spinoff resulted from its research into “biomass” fuels like biodiesel and ethanol. Mid-Atlantic Fuels LLC now conducts research into building facilities to make biodiesel and ethanol.
The founders’ intent all along was to wean MATRIC off donations as soon as possible. It managed to do that in two years, though the expectation was that it would take three years, Keller said.
It still relies on some donor support. The Charleston Area Alliance has been extending a $500,000 line of credit that was scheduled to be renewed in August, but the alliance hasn’t done so yet. Alliance Chairman Jack Rossi said the extension wasn’t granted because the alliance staff involved in approving the credit line needed more information from MATRIC. Once it’s supplied, at the alliance’s next meeting this month, the extension will probably be granted, he said.
To contact staff writer Joe Morris, use e-mail or call 348-5179.
