Edmiston Wins 2011 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award

Developer of Osorb environmental clean up technology honored in New York

NEW YORK, Oct. 11, 2011 - “These are the people and the scientists who are inventing the future,” James Meigs, executive editor of Popular Mechanics, told an overflow audience at the 2011 Breakthrough Awards in New York City on Monday night. One of those being honored: Paul Edmiston, professor of chemistry at The College of Wooster, for his development of Osorb, a nano-engineered glass that removes oil and other organic contaminants from water.

“He has pioneered something that the environment badly needs,” Meigs said.

Contributing editor Logan Ward made the same point at a panel discussion involving Edmiston and other winners. “To win a Breakthrough Award,” Ward said, “takes more than a clever idea, more than a gadget. It comes down to impact.”

Osorb has dozens of environmental clean up applications, from treating the billions of gallons of water used in oil drilling and natural gas fracking operations, to remediating TCEs in the ground at former industrial sites.

Other Breakthrough Award winners included a team of UCLA and CalTech scientists who have developed an electric therapy that stimulates spinal nerves to overcome paralysis, and the developers of a remote-controlled aerial vehicle that flies like a hummingbird. James Cameron, director of Avatar, Titanic, Aliens, and other blockbuster movies, received the magazine’s 2011 Leadership Award. Sigourney Weaver, who has starred in several of those films, presented Cameron’s award.

“Paul is a brilliant researcher and teacher whose discoveries will have an enormous impact on environmental quality and sustainability,” said Grant Cornwell, Wooster’s president. “The fact that his students have been involved in his work on Osorb from the very beginning is emblematic of Paul’s passion for mentoring undergraduates to become the next generation of researchers and innovators. All of us at Wooster could not be prouder or happier to see him received this richly deserved national recognition.”

Edmiston’s initial discovery of the material that became Osorb was serendipitous. One of his student research assistants observed an unexpected reaction during an experiment and brought it to his attention. Out of that observation, and more than two years of subsequent research, Edmiston co-founded ABS Materials in 2008 to commercialize his discovery. Today, the company employs 31 people in Wooster and 40 worldwide, including a half dozen College of Wooster graduates. Edmiston serves as the company’s chief science officer, while continuing to teach, conduct research, and mentor Wooster students in their own research projects.

ABS recently announced plans to expand its operations in Wooster. CEO Stephen Spoonamore told the Daily Record that they plan to hire 20-25 more employees by the end of the year, and hope to grow to 150 worldwide over the next three years. The company won the Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s 2011 Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award earlier this year.

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for excellence in teaching and a curriculum built around mentored undergraduate research. Every Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty adviser to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 2,000 students.

Dr. Paul Edmiston Explains "Osorb"