John Anthony, the John C. Hubbard Professor of Chemistry, is a pioneer in organic materials—things that are made from carbon instead of silicon. With grants from the U.S. Navy, NSF, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, as well a number of industrial sponsors, Anthony’s research focuses on organic solar cells (for low-cost generation of electricity), organic thin-film transistors (for flexible flat-panel displays), and organic light-emitting diodes (for high-efficiency lighting).

Co-founded by Anthony and CEO John Beran in 2005 and based in Louisville, Anthony’s company Outrider Technologies develops organic semiconductors for the electronics industry. The company has licenses with global technology giant 3M, and Outrider has paid UK nearly $850,000 in royalties since 2007 from license agreements for compounds developed by Anthony. He explains, "We’ve been able to put transistors, integrated circuits, on saran wrap. We actually just submitted this for publication to one of the Nature journals. So we know we can do the basic circuitry and that it’s stable, it doesn’t die when you crumple it up and fold it up and stuff it in your pocket. The next question is, can we get the performance out of it? That is where a good-sized effort of my research group is now turning its attention."

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