MATRIC's Big Breakthrough: Turning Layoffs into Hires
Charleston Sunday Gazette-Mail
February 10, 2008
By James I. Davison
More business, a bigger budget and new brain power are in MATRIC's future.
The South Charleston research nonprofit - formally known as the Mid-Atlantic Technology Research and Innovation Center - expects to keep growing this year in part by hiring dozens of seasoned researchers that Dow Chemical Co. plans to lay off, said President and Chief Executive Keith Pauley. We have a busy year," said Pauley. "We hope to hire many of the scientists and engineers that Dow is going to downsize in the next two years to accomplish those goals and to use a lot of facilities that Dow is not going to be using at the Dow Technology Park."
In all, MATRIC will bring on nearly 50 scientists and engineers from Dow, he said.
(Dow said it was eliminating the positions as part of companywide reductions in weak-performing businesses.)
MATRIC now employs about 75, and all but just a few of them are scientists. By the end of the year, Pauley said, he expects MATRIC will have about 150 employees.
Also this year, MATRIC's contracts will be worth about $10 million, up from about $7 million last year, Pauley said. They will fund 25 new projects to develop chemical and environmental technologies, work on stem-cell and cancer research and team up with NASA and the Department of Defense.
MATRIC chemist Ramona Neal Is one of the research nonprofit's Union Carbide Corp. alumni.
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The nonprofit organization was formed in 2003 and conducts chemical research for contract clients and for commercial start-ups that are spun off into independent businesses. It operates in a South Charleston Technology Park building left vacant by Dow.
About 40 percent of MATRIC's funds have come directly from federal appropriations or projects, and the rest is for commercial industry, Pauley said.
But it will be getting more money from the state this year.
The Kanawha County Commission agreed last month to give MATRIC $500,000, and Gov. Joe Manchin has pledged an additional $2 million in the state budget for it.
Notable research this year includes creating biodiesel from vegetable fats and oils. Partnering with a Madison, Wis., biodiesel company called BEST Energies, MATRIC recently finished the start-up of an eight million-gallon biodiesel plant in Wisconsin, Pauley said.
More such plants are planned this year, he said.
Researchers are also working on "cellulosic" energy technology, which develops ethanol fuel not from corn, but from wood-chips - creating the ability to convert waste from the forestry industry into a usable energy product, Pauley said.
Other research involves greenhouse gas capture, he added.
Meanwhile, Pauley envisions starting three more businesses this year. MATRIC has already developed five startups.
They include Transparent Armor LLC, which develops optically clear, bullet-resistant polymer systems; Moonshine Fuel Ethanol LLC, which carries out studies on locating corn-based ethanol facilities in west Virginia; Mountaineer Biofuels, which will build and run the BEST Energies plant; NGInnovations LLC, which purifies natural gas at or near well-heads using an advanced chemical process; and Mid-Atlantic Fuels LLC, which conducts research into building facilities to make biodiesel and ethanol.
To contact staff writer James I. Davison, use e-mail or call 348-5119