Dr. Rui Resendes

In 2009, Rui led the creation of GreenCentre, an exciting new commercialization model that is the first of its kind in North America. Through “hands-on” technical and commercialization activities, working with universities from across Canada, GreenCentre harnesses the power of early-stage green chemistry technologies and positions them to make positive environmental and economic impacts. In the past two years, GreenCentre has invested just over $5.6 million into a total of 76 technologies and new ventures from throughout the nation–and leveraged $22 million more. Most importantly, GreenCentre has injected the know-how to help fledging discoveries become transformational. In a recent example, GreenCentre partner Switchable Solutions has demonstrated the ability to extract oil from tar sands without a single drop added to tailings ponds – the first of what one hopes are many exciting innovations to come.