Innovation Crossroads is vital to East Tennessee’s entrepreneurial ecosystem because it attracts top scientific talent to the region, connects start-ups with ORNL’s world-class resources, and supports the commercialization of advanced energy and manufacturing technologies. It strengthens the local pipeline for clean tech and deep-tech innovation, helps retain high-level talent, and raises the region’s national profile as a hub for science-based entrepreneurship.
Six innovators selected for the highly-competitive 2025 Innovation Crossroads cohort
Regular teknovation.biz readers will be familiar with at least four of the high-tech start-ups.
Since 2017, dozens of entrepreneurs have launched high-impact start-ups due to the support, mentorship, and investment from the Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). And, this week, six more innovators have been added to the ranks.
Innovation Crossroads was launched at ORNL in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). It was established as part of DOE’s Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program (LEEP), which aims to embed entrepreneurial researchers in national labs to accelerate the commercialization of breakthrough technologies.
The members of the 2025 Innovation Crossroads cohort are no strangers to East Tennessee. Four out of six members have some sort of roots to the region, and just two are relocating from out of state.
Witching Hour
Lance Adler has been accepted into the program. While originally from Gulfport, Florida, Adler has lived in and around Knoxville for the past two years. He originally came to the region in 2024 for the Techstars Industries of the Future Accelerator, then stayed to participate in the Spark Cleantech Accelerator, and now will continue with the Innovation Crossroads program at the National Lab.
His company, Witching Hour, is a wildfire prevention technology for power companies. According to Adler, about 50 percent of wildfire destruction comes from power companies’ uninsulated power lines touching trees.
Witching Hour is a robotic system that installs advanced coating to existing power lines that decrease the risk of fire. It’s a cheap solution to the problem, as opposed to the costly option of moving the power lines underground.
Read more about Adler’s start-up in teknovation.biz.
Applied 2D Materials
Alex Readel is set to join the 2025 cohort. He is originally from the Knoxville area, and is passionate about manufacturing and 2D materials. After working for General Graphene for a couple years under the advisory guidance of Vig Sherrill, Readel decided to step out on his own and bring a new, innovative 2D material to market.
Readel is working with an innovative hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) coating, which has been proven by experiments at ORNL to create a protective coating for metals such as stainless steel. He is focusing on using hBN coating for molten salt corrosion, which is used in nuclear-molten salt reactors and concentrated solar power plants.
In short, this coating could help equipment exposed to harsh chemicals and high temperatures last longer by preventing corrosion.
Read more about Readel’s start-up in teknovation.biz.
Lumios Materials
Evan Stacy is joining the program from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Stacy is researching a new technology and method for enhancing carbon fiber production. His research is important, since carbon fiber has become one of the most important structural materials of the 21st century. And, the current polyacrylonitrile (PAN) synthesis process is complicated and costly.
AluminAiry
AluminAiry is a Knoxville-based start-up (spun out of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville) founded by Brian Washington. Their batteries use recyclable aluminum and air to generate energy, offering significantly higher energy density for stationary and backup power solutions.
Washington has participated in the 2024 Spark Cleantech Accelerator at UT Research Park, and received a $50,000 Chancellor’s Innovation Fund Grant from the UT Research Foundation in 2025.
Washington is being co-funded by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for Innovation Crossroads.
Read more about Washington’s start-up in teknovation.biz.
ALGENOVAS’
Helen Banner joins the 2025 Innovation Crossroads cohort from Caltech, where she is a PhD candidate in Bioengineering.
Her innovation surrounds using algae-based biocomposites for hard-shell product packaging. It would support consumer goods companies in meeting market demands and regulatory requirements. She sees this innovation also being applicable in furniture manufacturing and non-structural construction materials.
Effusio
Viktor Zenkov joins Innovation Crossroads from Knoxville. They are bringing to market enhanced energy efficiency in data center cooling systems.
The start-up’s big idea involves the fusion of vapor compression and absorption refrigeration systems into a novel thermodynamic cycle that radically reduces the power required to cool electronics.
Read more about Effusio on teknovation.biz.
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