Aug 31 2006
Atmospheric Glow Technologies has won a prestigious Tibbetts Award. The only company in Tennessee to receive the 2006 national honor, AGT was recognized as a leader in the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, for the economic impact of the company's innovative use of plasma, and for overall business achievement.
"AGT has matured from a small start-up to a product-focused company in just a few years. Their early success is directly linked to the support they received from the SBIR program," commented Geoff Robson, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth in nearby Oak Ridge, TN.
AGT is a global leader in atmospheric plasma technology.
"Our mission is to use atmospheric plasma to improve the health and well being of individuals and the environment, and to advance manufacturing processing efficiencies," said Kimberly Kelly-Wintenberg, founder, President and COO of the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley-based company.
AGT was honored with its first Tibbetts Award in 2001 and has also received two R&D 100 Awards for technologically significant new products in 2002 and 2005.
Recently, AGT introduced two products for which the federal SBIR program provided critical early development funds. The PlasmaAire TriClean Max is AGT's first product in the air purification market while the PlasmaGen APR- 510-S has been introduced into the biotechnology sector as a simple one-step means to release nucleic acid for amplification without the need for cumbersome protocols or multiple reagents.
The SBIR program is widely acknowledged as producing some of the nation's most highly rated research. "Winners of the Tibbetts Award represent the most innovative small businesses in America and are 'models of excellence' for technology R&D," said Robson.
AGT is developing an array of products based upon One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma (OAUGDP(R)) technology. Additional plasma-based applications that are under development with varying levels of SBIR support include decontamination of biological agents, medical device sterilization, aerodynamics, and materials processing.
The award is named for Roland Tibbetts, the driving force behind the creation of the SBIR program. For more details on award, visit: http://www.tibbettsawards.org/.
Atmospheric Glow Technologies is part of a burgeoning high tech industry in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley that builds upon research at the University of Tennessee/Knoxville and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
http://www.atmosphericglow.com