Lucy is a senior studying Marketing and Data Analytics at the University of Kansas. In addition to managing her own photography studio, Lucy Hartman Photography, she also serves as the Director of Photography for Chi Omega Sorority and was formerly a Media Intern for MMGY Global and Novella Brandhouse.
Barbara Minor
Advisor
Barbara Minor has spent more than 30 years developing non-ozone depleting and low global warming potential refrigerants for air conditioning and refrigeration applications. As a senior technical fellow for DuPont and later Chemours, she led development of OpteonTM yf for automotive air conditioning. With >99% lower GWP, it has been adopted by all major auto companies is used globally in millions of vehicles. Barbara went on to develop several stationary refrigerants which have been installed in thousands of building air conditioning and supermarket refrigeration systems around the world. She holds ~200 US patents and has many publications in the field. In 2018, she received the Perkin Medal for applied chemistry which is considered the highest honor in the US chemical industry.
Ken Gaglione, MBA
Advisor
Ken Gaglione brings a wealth of business development, marketing, and operations experience in the fields of semiconductor packaging, specialty chemicals, and refrigerant production and reclamation with Ciba-Geigy, Rohm & Haas, and Honeywell’s Fluorine products business, where he was the director of global marketing. Most recently, Ken was the Vice President of Operations for Hudson Technologies, the leading refrigerant reclaimer in the United States where he was responsible for a wide range of activity including the evolution of Hudson’s refrigerant separation strategy. Ken has his MBA from the University of California and BS in Chemistry from the State University of New York.
Jeremy Patt, PhD
Advisor
Dr. Jeremy Patt has 20 years of experience in the chemical industry at Fortune 500 companies and venture-backed start-ups. In the last 15 years, he has held global leadership positions in building and advancing research programs, pilot plants, and first-of-kind manufacturing plants. Jeremy has led and developed successful commercialization processes across a broad range of technologies, including high-volume chemical production, catalysis, adsorption, extraction, membranes, solids handling, and water treatment. He earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan and is an inventor on 17 U.S. patents. Jeremy serves as CTO of Summit Nanotech, which uses its patented direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology to produce lithium in a way that supports making energy transition accessible for all.
Ted Atwood
Advisor
Ted Atwood is a serial entrepreneur, experienced executive, and a leading voice in the HVAC sustainability space. Ted founded Polar Technology in 1994, which grew to be one of the largest refrigerant reclamation companies in the United States. Focused on minimizing refrigerant emissions and enhancing tracking for sustainability, Polar Technology had grown to 11 recycling facilities across the US and internationally prior to its acquisition by Hudson Technologies in 2015. Ted then founded Trakref™, a software corporation delivering global sustainability solutions for tracking and regulatory compliance, which was acquired by facilities management platform, Fexa™, in 2023. Most recently, Ted co-founded consulting firm Carbon Connection, which helps companies bridge the gap between operational data and reporting with a focus on HVAC/R F-gas and refrigerant materials.
R&D Engineering Intern
Irene Xu
Irene is an Undergraduate R&D Engineering Intern with Icorium and a class of 2026 SELF Fellow studying chemical engineering at KU. Prior to joining Icorium, Irene worked as an undergraduate researcher at KU’s Institute for Sustainable Engineering working on Project EARTH (Environmentally Applied Research Toward Hydrofluorocarbons) and as anEngineering Intern for HF Sinclair Corporation.
R&D Engineer
Luke Wallisch
Formerly an R&D Engineering Intern with Icorium, Luke graduate from KU with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering where he was an undergraduate researcher at KU’s Wonderful Institute for Sustainable Engineering. A member of the Shiflett research group working on Project EARTH (Environmentally Applied Research Toward Hydrofluorocarbons), Luke’s research focused on sustainable refrigerant gas separation using perfluoropolymer membranes. Before joining Icorium, Luke worked as an R&D Engineering Intern at 3M Company, and as an Assistant Researcher at the University of Kansas.
Head of Research & Development
Abby Harders, PhD
Dr. Harders overseas laboratory research and the development of Icoriumn’s technology Pipeline. Formerly an R&D Engineer with Icorium, Abby received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas, graduating with honors. Prio to KU, Abby graduated summa cum laude from Bethel College in 2020 with Bachelors Degrees in both Chemistry and Mathematics. Abby is a member of Project EARTH, a project focused on identifying sustainable processes for the selective separation of hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant mixtures. Her research is centered on using membranes for the separation of HFC mixtures that contribute to global warming.
Head of Engineering
Michael Lundin, PhD
Dr. Michael Lundin is Icorium’s Head of Engineering and a Senior Process Research Engineer at KU’s Institute for Sustainable Engineering. He oversees the modeling, simulation, and design work for Icorium’s collaborative research with KU related to Icorium’s pilot-scale separation projects. Michael received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 2003, during which time he worked at the Center for Applied Energy Research designing and building the control and data acquisition systems for an iron catalyst-based Fisher-Tropsch pilot plant. In 2009 he earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from University of Notre Dame, where his work focused on modeling bubble coalescence in the multi-phase flows present in direct methanol fuel cells. He then joined KU’s Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysts, where he led collaborative research and development projects with private industry, ranging from a collaboration with Archer Daniels Midland Company to investigate the use of liquid CO2 as a medium for the ozonolysis of fatty acid methyl esters, to a project with W.R. Grace & Co. investigating the modification of microporous catalysts for enhancing the yields and directing selectivity in the synthesis of pyridines using a fluidized bed reactor.
Chief Strategy Officer
Erik Blume, JD/MBA
Icorium’s Chief Strategy Officer and General Counsel, Erik received both his Juris Doctorate with a certificate in Business and Commercial Law, and his MBA with a focus on Entrepreneurship from the University of Kansas. Erik brings nearly a decade of experience in technology commercialization and entrepreneurship as a startup founder, advisor, and consultant. Prior to joining Icorium, Erik founded Liminix Consulting, a small business and startup consulting firm supporting early-stage companies commercializing technologies in biotech, sustainable engineering, and applied physics. Prior to Liminix, he spent six years at the KU Innovation Park providing business guidance and technical support to early-stage companies and developing and implementing a diverse portfolio of resources and programming supporting early-stage bioscience and technology companies supported by more than $12M in federal grant funding.
Co-Founder & Chief Science Officer
Mark Shiflett, PhD/PE
Dr. Mark Shiflett is a Distinguished Foundation Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Kansas (KU), where his research focuses on developing environmentally friendly, energy efficient processes and products for the chemical industry. Mark received his PhD and MS degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware in 2001 and 1998, and his BS degree in chemical engineering from N.C. State University in 1989. He retired from the DuPont Company after 28 years in 2016 as a Technical Fellow in the Central Research and Development Organization at DuPont’s Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware. He also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Mark is an inventor on 46 U.S. patents and has published over 130 articles on his research at DuPont. He was awarded the DuPont Bolton Carothers (2005), ACS Hero of Chemistry (2006), and University of Delaware Presidential Citation (2007) for his development of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant mixtures to replace CFCs, which were linked to the depletion of the Earth’s ozone layer. Mark was elected in 2014 as a Fellow in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers a Division Fellow in the American Chemical Society in 2016. He received the American Institute of Chemical Engineers award for Industrial Research in 2016 for the development of non-ozone-depleting refrigerants leading to the healing of the ozone layer, discovery of new applications for ionic liquids, an environmentally friendly TiO2 process, and for his commitment to the education and mentorship of the next generation of chemical engineers.
Co-Founder and CEO
Kalin Baca, PhD/MBA
A chemical engineer, entrepreneur, and advocate for sustainable engineering practices, Dr. Kalin Baca has been recognized for her substantial contributions in research, innovation, and leadership. Graduating with honors from the University of Kansas with a PhD in Chemical Engineering, she is a leading expert on ionic liquid separation and an originator of Icorium’s core technologies. Prior to her time at KU, she earned her MS in Chemical Engineering, BS in Chemical Engineering, and MBA from the University of New Mexico. Kalin’s career also includes a tenure at Sandia National Laboratories, where she contributed to an R&D 100 Award-winning team for a groundbreaking 3D X-Ray Phase Contrast Imaging System. In addition to being a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and stickler for the wearing of safety goggles, Kalin is a committed advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusivity in communities of innovation, and for the advancement of women in STEM and entrepreneurship.
