Thomas Edison. Henry Ford. Yogi Goswami.
These three are among the 20 inventors who have been inducted into the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame since its inception in 2013. Only one, though, lives in New Tampa.
Yogi Goswami, Ph.D., P.E. (Professor Emeritus), is a University of South Florida Distinguished Professor and director of the university’s Clean Energy Research Center. The Cory Lake Isles resident is one of seven inventors honored at an induction ceremony and gala at the Inventors Hall on the USF Tampa Campus on September 16.
Dr. Goswami has lived in New Tampa with his wife Lovely for 10 years, since he left his position as director of the University of Florida’s Solar Energy Research Lab in Gainesville. He came to USF because he says it gave him, “more opportunities for doing groundbreaking research.” For example, Dr. Goswami says, “To establish a new research lab, you need space to do that, and USF was able to give me that space. Because the university is newer, it is open to a lot of things that may be harder to do at a (more) well-established university.”
The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame chose Dr. Goswami for his work in solar energy and indoor air quality. “I have 18 patents,” he says. “Some are related to solar energy, some to energy storage, and six are related to indoor air quality and the technology to disinfect and clean air.”
He says the key to being chosen for this honor is for those patents to be in use and helping people.
“My inventions are being used around the world,” Dr. Goswami says, “especially my invention to disinfect
When his now-grown son, Dilip, was much younger and suffering from allergies and asthma, Dr. Goswami began to look for a way to help him. He used his expertise to develop the technology that actually destroys the pollutants in the air that were making his son sick.
“The air inside homes and offices has a lot of pollutants, not just bacteria, viruses and mold,” says Dr. Goswami, “but also volatile organic chemicals that come from paints and other materials we use inside our buildings. Those things make us sick. Before air conditioning was so widely available, we used to have open windows so we would have fresh air. Now, these pollutants concentrate inside. This technology is the first on the market that destroys them.”
Dr. Goswami and Dilip co-founded Molekule, the company that is now producing an indoor air purifier that uses this technology. The first two production runs of the device, also called Molekule, have completely sold out, and the company currently has a waiting list for the next batch of air purifiers, which are expected to be available for sale in November.
He says many of his other inventions are related to making solar energy conversion more efficient, to bring the cost down.
“Costs have come down quite a bit over the last few decades in solar energy,” says Dr. Goswami. “We can make it more efficient and bring the cost down even further in the future.” He also has inventions related to storing energy more effectively, since solar energy is “intermittent,” meaning it’s not available at night or when it’s cloudy. His work in this area is directed toward large- scale power plants that produce solar energy.
“The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame is very prestigious,” says Dr. Goswami. “I feel honored to be inducted, especially seeing the people who were inducted before me, such as Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Dr. Robert Cade, the inventor of Gatorade.”
The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame is located in the USF Research Park at 3702 Spectrum Blvd., Suite 165, and is online at FloridaInvents.org.
For more information about the Molekule air purifier, visit Molekule.com.
No comment yet, add your voice below!