Four award-winning nanotech experts join Stoicheia

SKOKIE - Stoicheia, a nanotechnology startup based in Skokie, Monday announced the first four members of its scientific advisory board.

Bringing expertise in nanotechnology, materials science and clean energy, Richard Crooks, Vinayak Dravid, Edward Sargent and Peidong Yang have joined the Stoicheia team, the company said.

Stoicheia launched in January after closing a $5 million venture-backed seed financing round. Stoicheia's technology can rapidly identify new materials with ideal properties for numerous applications, including for the energy, transportation, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries, the company said.

Crooks is the Robert A. Welch Chair in Materials Chemistry at the University of Texas-Austin, as well as one of the foremost experts in electrochemistry, nanocatalysis and nanoparticle synthesis. Dravid is the Abraham Harris-chaired professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University and founding director of the Northwestern University Atomic and Nanoscale Characterization Center.

An expert in renewable energy and catalysis, Sargent is the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology at the University of Toronto, where he leads research into advanced materials, such as quantum dots, perovskite crystals and multi-metal crystals.

Yang, the S.K. and Angela Chan Distinguished Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley, is a world-renowned expert in nanoparticle catalysis and renewable energy research.