Cybersecurity-CTA
Info Card - Climate and Power
Info Card - Cyber
James Rogers, PhD, Founder and CEO, Apeel Sciences
While working on his PhD in Materials at a UC, James Rogers spent a lot of time driving back and forth to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For hours, he passed lush agriculture fields and wondered how millions in the world went hungry. He soon learned it wasn’t a problem with production, but rather an issue with food spoilage.
Drawing from his research at a UC, Rogers created Apeel, a tasteless, odorless, edible coating made from plant materials that naturally keeps fruits and vegetables fresh longer. Apeel keeps moisture inside produce and oxygen out, which dramatically slows the rate that produce spoils. Apeel produce stays fresh two to three times longer, which promotes more sustainable growing practices, better quality food, and less food waste.
A first-place finish and $10,000 prize in UC's New Venture Competition, and a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation allowed Rogers to found Apeel Sciences in 2012. Since then, Apeel has developed products for dozens of U.S. Department of Agriculture Organic Certified and conventional produce categories such as avocado, citrus, asparagus, and berries. The produce is available nationally in Costco and Kroger stores. In 2019, Apeel partnered with Nature’s Pride to expand distribution to Europe.
Rogers received his PhD in Materials Science from a UC after earning dual undergraduate degrees from Carnegie Mellon University in Materials Science & Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. For his PhD research, Rogers received the 2012 Frank J. Padden Jr. Award for polymer physics, the premier polymer physics prize in the United States.
“The opportunity to be co-advised and the access to shared facilities at UC allowed me to move fluidly between fields and blurred the boundaries between traditional disciplines,” said Rogers. “UC provides access to a wide network of researchers who are trying to push the boundaries of human knowledge.”
To current and future UC engineers, Rogers offers words of wisdom and encouragement.
“Push yourself to the very edge of your field and then don’t be afraid to jump.”