Argonne engineer Meltem Urgun-Demirtas leads the Bioprocesses and Reactive Separations group at Argonne, where she brings more than 20 years of diverse experience in waste and water treatment, biofuels production and materials synthesis for energy and environmental applications.
Working with Chain Reaction Innovations entrepreneurs Justin Whiteley and Tyler Huggins, Urgun-Demirtas helped the pair discover a new use for their renewable materials, which they originally developed for energy storage. With her help, Whiteley and Huggins found the material was high in protein, vitamins and minerals. So they renamed their company Meati Foods and started working on fungi-based meat substitutes to help address global food supply problems.
Biography: https://www.anl.gov/profile/meltem-urgun-demirtas
