The Solterra Leadership

Board of Directors

Stephen Squires - Chairman of the Board / President & CEO Solterra Renewable Technologies
Stephen is the Principal Inventor and Chief Technologist for Solterra Renewable Technologies, Inc., an advanced technologies innovation group. He has over 25 years experience in advanced materials and technologies. Prior to Solterra, Stephen was at McDonnell Aircraft developing and adapting advanced materials for combat aircraft applications. He was also CEO of Aviation Composite Technologies Inc., which he grew to have over 200 employees and $20 million in revenue. ACT was merged with USDR Aerospace in 2001. He has pursued his interest in advanced materials and more specifically Nano fibers and carbon Nanotubes, where he quickly recognized the potential of the unique quantum features these materials held.


Dr. Michael S. Wong - Principal Investigator, Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering , Associate Professor in Chemistry (Joint Appointment)
Dr. Michael S. Wong joined the Department of Chemical Engineering in 2001, and received a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry in 2002. Before coming to Rice University, he did post-doctoral research with Dr. Galen D. Stucky of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at University of California, Santa Barbara. Michael's educational background includes a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Caltech, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering Practice ("Practice School") from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from MIT (under the supervision of Dr. Jackie Y. Ying, "Supramolecular Templating of Mesoporous Zirconia-Based Nanocomposite Catalysts"). With the underlying theme of designing and engineering novel materials for catalytic and encapsulation applications, his research interests lie in the areas of nanostructured materials (e.g. nanoporous materials, nanoparticle-based hollow spheres, and quantum dots), heterogeneous catalysis, and bioengineering applications. He is particularly interested in developing new chemical app roaches to assembling nanoparticles into functional macrostructures.

Awards and Achievements

  • Smithsonian Magazine "37 Under 36" Young Innovator Award (2007)
  • 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award (2006, 2007)
  • GOLD 2006 Conference Best Presentation Award, for "best new idea in gold catalysis" (2006)
  • AIChE South Texas Section Best Applied Paper Award (2006)
  • AIChE Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Young Investigator Award (2006)
  • MIT Technology Review's TR35 Young Innovator Award (2006)
  • Hershel M. Rich Invention Award (2006)
  • National Academy of Engineering Indo-America Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Invited Speaker (2006)
  • Smalley/Curl Innovation Award (2005)
  • National Academies Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI) Symposium, Invited Participant (2004)
  • Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award (2003)
  • National Academy of Engineering Japan-America Frontiers of Engineering (JAFOE)
  • Symposium, Invited Participant (2002)
  • Rice Quantum Institute (RQI), Fellow (2002)
  • Robert P. Goldberg Grand Prize, MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition (2001)
  • Union Carbide Innovation Recognition Award (2000)
  • MIT Chemical Engineering Edward W. Merrill Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (1997)
  • Faculty advisor for Phi Lambda Upsilon, chemical sciences honorary society (2003 - present)

Ghassan E. Jabbour - PhD and Director of Flexible and Organic Electronics Development at the Flexible Display Center (FDC) and a Professor of Chemical and Materials Engineering at Arizona State University
Professor Jabbour is also the Technical Advisory Board Leader on Optoelectronic Materials, Devices and Encapsulation at FDC. He has been selected to the Asahi Shimbun 100 New Leaders of the USA and has received the Presidential Award for Excellence from the Hariri Foundation in 1997. Dr. Jabbour's research experience encompasses flexible-roll-to-roll-electronics and displays, smart textile, moisture and oxygen barrier technology, transparent conductors, organic light emitting devices, organic and hybrid photovoltaics, organic memory storage, organic thin film transistors, combinatorial discovery of materials, nano and macro printed devices, micro and nanofabrication, biosensors, and quantum simulations of electronic materials. Dr. Jabbour attended Northern Arizona University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of Arizona and is an SPIE fellow. Prof. Jabbour has authored and co-authored over 300 publications, invited talks, and conference proceedings. He is the editor of several books and symposia proceedings involving organic photonics and electronics, and nanotechnology. Prof. Jabbour is the guest editor of the MRS Bulletin issue on "Organic Photovoltaics". He is the Chair and/or Co-Chair of over 50 conferences related to photonic and electronic properties of organic materials and their applications in displays and lighting, hybrid photosensitive materials, and hybrid integration of semiconducting and nanotechnology.


Robert A. Glass,Ph.D. - CTO Solterra Renewable Technologies
“Dr. Bob” is an internationally known scientist and technologist, with over 30 years of experience in technology. As a scientist Dr. Glass led the design of LED displays used in open cockpit submarines for the Navy. Dr. Glass' experience includes running Scientific and Engineering teams at major industries including NIST (U.S. Dept. of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology's- Photometry Division in the Center for Building Technology- he was chief of 13 scientists working in Illumination & Photometry standards development). At Lockheed, he was in charge of Advanced Development for Space Station including designing a laminar flow bench for on orbit repairs of equipment which is onboard the space station. He specialized in working with the astronauts on developing hardware for space walks (EVA missions). He and his team developed NASA 3000, the first hardware standard ever developed for NASA. He worked with Rotary Rocket and Weaver Aerospace on the design of hardware for their private space program. Dr. Bob has extensive software experience as well, having led engineering teams at Xerox, Apple and Sun Microsystems. He is the author of more than a dozen technical papers on human vision, and holds 13 U.S. And International Patents on display technology. He previously served with the National Academy of Science as a postdoctoral advisor and committee member and as an advisor to MIT, Georgia Tech. and Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. He's a Fellow of the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. He is a frequent guest of the government as a reviewer for the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Advanced Technology Program and government conferences on building high tech start-ups. He is best known for his predictions of a changed world built on nanotechnology including MEMS through his film "Starfire" and his hundreds of technology futures' speeches around the world throughout the 1990's. Bob earned his doctorate at the University of Maryland in Sensory Processes & Physiological Psychology and specialized in brain functioning and human color vision.


David Doderer - VP Solterra Renewable Technologies
David has over 15 years of research and development experience in emerging technologies including biotechnology, nanotechnology and quantum physics. Most recently serving as principal investigator for USGN, he co-authored numerous patents/patents pending and proprietary processes, and managed Hudler Titan LLC, a technology consulting company.