Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

From Knoxville:

Marty Brown, President and Chief Executive Officer of PYA, the power behind teknovation.biz, has been named CPA of the Year by the Tennessee Society of Certified Public Accountants. 

David McMillan, PYA Managing Principal of Consulting and Chief Financial Officer, said it best: “Every day, Marty leads in a genuine, authentic manner. He deeply cares for our firm, our teammates, our clients, and this profession, and that care and devotion are apparent to all those who know him. On behalf of all PYA employees, I heartily congratulate Marty on this prestigious and well-deserved honor.”

In a social media post, Brown wrote, “This very kind honor only comes because I am part of a fabulous team of colleagues and long-time business partners at PYA, and because of my wonderful family.” The family includes his wife, Ann Brown; daughter, Kelsey Brown; son, Trevor Brown; daughter-in-law, Courtney Brown; and three grandsons.

Another from Knoxville:

Perseus Materials Inc. is the newest alliance partner of an organization known as the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM).

Based in Youngstown, OH, the NCDMM executes applied research and development projects to improve Department of Defense weapon and support systems by integrating key technologies, new materials, and innovative manufacturing processes. Perseus Materials is one of more than 200 alliance partners.

Co-founded by Daniel Lee, the company’s Chief Executive Officer, and John Feist, Chief Technology Officer, Perseus Materials has reimagined the chemistry that powers the manufacturing of composites to make it the cheapest, most convenient building material of the future.

In March, the start-up that is a member of the 2023 cohort of the “Innovation Crossroads” program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory captured first place in the category of “Process, Manufacturing & Equipment” during the “JEC Composites Start-up Booster” competition.

From Chattanooga:

Billed as the place where Chattanooga’s innovation engine meets the Southeast’s brightest minds, the 10^th annual Scenic City Summit returns to Chattanooga June 19-21 across three venues over three days. On Thursday, activities are scheduled for the College of Engineering & Computer Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Friday’s events are set for the Chattanooga Convention Center, and the final day of Saturday will be at The Edney Innovation Center.

The annual event is organized by the Chattanooga Technology Council with support from DevOpsDays Chattanooga, Open Source & Drupal Camp, SQL Saturday, PowerShell + SQL on the River, Gig City Data Jam, DC423, NervesConf, and GigCityElixir.

The full schedule can be found here, while a link to purchase tickets is here.

From Nashville:

Caduceus Capital Partners, a Nashville-based venture capital firm dedicated to investing in and accelerating the growth of digital health start-ups, is accepting applications for the fall cohort of its Caduceus LAUNCH program.

Applications are open through August 1. The fall cohort starts on September 8, with an immersive in-person week in Nashville.  The remainder of the program is virtual. To apply, click here.

Separately, Caduceus LAUNCH has announced the six start-ups participating in its spring cohort that starts this month. They are:

1. Attune Media Labs leverages the extraordinary power of emerging technologies to create scalable personal empathetic companions proven to reduce loneliness, anxiety, and stress and promote human wellbeing.
2. BobiHealth works to end avoidable maternal and infant mortality. The company’s app uses ethical AI to revolutionize pregnancy care, providing vital, evidence-based information for safer pregnancies.
3. Cogensus is a proprietary digital health and analytics platform focused on cognitive health support, data insights, and legacy preservation.
4. Elarin Health supports improved clinical decision-making with personalized, predictive insight—helping care teams anticipate fall risk and improve outcomes through earlier intervention.
5. TheraVista is bringing AI vision and gamification to vestibular physical therapy, with an app to help patients complete their balance exercises correctly and avoid a catastrophic fall.
6. Vie Science is revolutionizing fertility care, reframing it from the realm of treatment to prevention—shifting from a mechanical, one-size-fits-all approach to an integrated, data-driven, and human-centered solution.

From Oak Ridge:

The Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has promoted Melissa Cregger and Carrie Eckert to serve as Chief Science Officers (CSOs), advancing the center’s mission of innovations for new domestic biofuels, chemicals, and materials.

Cregger will oversee CBI’s development of resilient, high-yielding, non-food feedstock crops, while Eckert will guide the center’s research on cost-effective methods to break down and convert plant biomass into valuable fuels and products.

Brian Davison, Chief Scientist for Biotechnology at ORNL and formerly the Center’s CSO, has moved into a new role with CBI as industrial liaison, stewarding outreach as part of its Research Council. He also continues to lead a separate project, the DOE Solvent Disruption of Biomass and Biomembrane Structures in the Production of Biofuels and Bioproducts Science Focus Area at ORNL.

CBI is one of four Department of Energy Bioenergy Resource Centers (BRCs) across the nation, laying the science and technology foundation for a robust bioeconomy, boosting domestic supply chains, and energy security while providing job growth in America’s rural areas.

Another from Oak Ridge:

It seems like there is an announcement each week from LIS Technologies Inc., the proprietary developer of advanced laser technology and the only USA-origin and patented laser uranium enrichment company. This time, it was an announcement that the company has appointed Brent Park, Ph.D., as its Executive Director of Nuclear Security and Safeguards Policy.

He served as Deputy Administrator at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) where Park led Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation programs to support the nation’s efforts in nonproliferation treaties and international arms control, international nuclear security, safeguards, and export control policies. Prior to joining NNSA, he was Associate Laboratory Director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, leading the science-to-application efforts for national security programs. Research topics were wide-ranging, with particular focus on materials science and engineering, cybersecurity, high-performance computing and big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and nuclear science and engineering.

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