Draft:Stefan Pastine

Stefan Pastine is an American scientist, inventor and a materials entrepreneur. He has founded two companies, Connora Technologies Inc. and Thintronics Inc.

Education
Pastine earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry at Columbia University where he published on carbon-hydrogen activation methodologies in complex organic synthesis. He later studied organic materials science at UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Professor Jean Frechet where his research included the conversion of light to work, responsive materials, nanotechnology, and biomimicry. In 2010 he was awarded the R&D 100 award.

Career
In 2011 Pastine founded Connora Technologies to commercialize recyclable thermoset technology. Using molecular design the company developed recyclamine, a set of recyclable epoxy thermosets which allowed industrial plastics to be recycled for the first time. Connora developed a process by which plastics and reinforcements (e.g., carbon fiber, fiberglass, kevlar) can be recovered, enabling the recycling of composite products.

Recyclable Thermosets were named by the World Economic Forum as one of the top 10 innovations of 2015. In 2017 Connora developed the world's first recyclable thermosets in sporting goods with Snow Board manufacturers. The company was acquired by Aditya Birla Chemicals in 2019 and the technology is being used in the manufacture of recyclable windmill blades by Siemens Gamesa. 

Thintronics
In 2019 Pastine founded Thintronics Inc. to develop a set of materials with improved electrical and mechanical properties for application in the PCB and semiconductor industries. Thintronics’ technology offers significant performance improvements for mobile devices, networking, high-speed computing, AI and GPU technologies.

In September 2023 Thintronics was awarded an SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation to commercialise its technology. In March 2024 they closed a Series A funding round for $23M. The company is based in Berkeley, California.