Spring of 2011 Inventors

Laura Brunson

Laura R. Brunson is a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and a Ph. D. student in the University of Oklahoma (OU) school of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science. Laura is currently researching fluoride and arsenic removal technologies appropriate for emerging regions through the WaTER (Water Technologies for Emerging Regions) Center. Laura is also researching social entrepreneurship's role in mitigating the water crisis in developing regions, as over 900 million people worldwide lack access to safe water supplies. As a part of this research, Brunson has traveled to Ethiopia and Tanzania, and has plans to return to Ethiopia in summer 2011 to conduct a small-scale fluoride removal test in a rural community.

Laura is currently co-teaching Social Entrepreneurship at the Price College of Business at OU in conjunction and is a founding member of Sustainable OKC, a nonprofit organization focusing on environmental protection, social justice, and economic growth, where she served as Vice President of the board for several years.

Laura earned her Master's degree in Environmental Science in 2009, and an undergraduate degree in Business in 2002, both from OU.

Associated Project: Water Technologies for Emerging Regions (Ethiopia)

Sridhar Radhakrishnan

Dr. Sridhar Radhakrishnan is a professor and the Director of the School of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma, where he joined in 1990.

His research interests are in the areas of protocol design for wireless and mobile computing, power aware protocols in mobile networks, algorithms for quality of service routing in broadband networks, and resource allocation problems in wireless networks. He is currently leading an interdisciplinary research program to address global security issues of transporting shipping containers. He has published over 100 research articles in journals, conference proceedings, and book chapters.

Dr. Radhakrishnan received his PhD in Computer Science from Louisiana State University in 1990.

Associated Project: Software Business Accelerator

Younane N. Abousleiman

Dr. Younane N. Abousleiman is the director of the PoroMechanics Institute in the College of Earth & Energy at the University of Oklahoma. He is also the Larry W. Brummett/ONEOK Chair in Poromechanics in the Mewbourne School of Petroleum & Geological Engineering; the ConocoPhillips School of Geology and Geophysics, and the School of Civil Engineering & Environmental Science.

Dr. Abousleiman was appointed as director of the PoroMechanics Institute in 1998, generating more than $15 million in research funding. He is also the principal investigator for two industry-sponsored consortia with fifteen national and international members: the GeoGenome™ Industry Consortium and the PoroMechanics Institute Rock Mechanics Consortium, with research foci on upstream oil and gas industry problems, specifically related to shale mechanics. Dr. Abousleiman has authored or coauthored more than 200 technical papers and has two patents.