Expertise

Topics:  TAML Catalysts, Water Purification, Micropollutants, Organic Chemical Degredation, Endocrine Disruption, Oxidation Enzyme Biomimicry, Sustainability, Sustainability Ethics

Industries: Research, Chemicals, Education/Learning, Investment Banking

Terry Collins is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry and Director of the Institute for Green Science (https://www.cmu.edu/igs/). He is the principal inventor of bioinspired TAML activators, the most technically proficient homogeneous oxidation catalysts across both chemistry and biology. He created and followed for 40+ years an iterative oxidation catalyst design protocol that yielded the first TAML activator after 15 years; 30 years on, the protocol continues to advance TAML technical performances for myriad applications. Collins is the Creator-Founder of Sudoc, LLC (https://sudoc.com/), the global ambition, highly awarded CMU spinoff company that is scaling TAMLs commercially. Dr. Collins taught the first university course at the Chemistry/Sustainability interface, iterating it over 30+ years for understanding and fixing unsustainability within the chemical enterprise. He sees endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) as a climate change scale existential threat and spends much of his time working through teaching, research, public service, and entrepreneurship to reduce EDC contamination of people and the environment. He writes and speaks widely about chemical sustainability challenges.

Media Experience

Op-ed: To curb chronic disease in Americans, the FDA needs to assert regulatory control over toxic chemicals in our food  — Enviromental Health News
As senior environmental health researchers and physicians, we are united in our concern about the escalating prevalence of chronic diseases in the United States. To stop the increase of these chronic disease epidemics, it is essential to change the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s current lack of regulatory oversight of toxic chemicals in food.

Terry Collins, PhD: Hope for the Future in Novel Catalysts – TAMLs  — Poisoning Our Children Blod
A prolific researcher, Dr. Collins is the Teresa Heinz Professor in Green Chemistry and Director of the Institute for Green Science at Carnegie Mellon. He is primarily responsible for inventing green oxidation catalysts that are able to clean up endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in water and other matrices with a minimum of health risks themselves; the technology is heading toward pilot and demonstration trials. It was no surprise to me that in addition to being a great chemist, he is also at heart a great humanist.

Your Contact Lenses May Be a Hidden Source of 'Forever Chemicals'  — ScienceAlert
Terrence Collins, a chemist at Carnegie Mellon University, explains to Mamavation that fluoropolymers like PFAS are cheap and effective materials for manufacturers to use for contact lenses. But he is frustrated by the lack of federal requirements for chemical disclosures and testing.

Terry Collins: PFAS removal discovery not yet a ‘powerful solution’  — Environmental Health News
Researchers at Northwestern University last week published a breakthrough paper in the journal Science touting a new way of destroying PFAS molecules – dubbed the “forever chemical” for its engineered longevity. Carnegie Mellon University chemist Terry Collins offers a counterpoint on the optimism.

'Forever chemicals' found in drinking water across the US pose health risks even in small amounts, EPA says  — Insider
The EPA advisory is nonbinding, but it represents an "epic" shift in regulation, Terrence Collins, director of the Institute for Green Science at Carnegie Mellon University, told Insider.

Sudoc Named Startup To Watch by Chemical & Engineering News  — Carnegie Mellon University News
Sudoc, a startup co-founded by Carnegie Mellon University chemists Terrence J. Collins and Ryan C. Sullivan, has been named one of 10 startups to watch by Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). Sudoc is developing and commercializing TAML catalysts, a bioinspired environmentally friendly molecule that outperforms toxic chemicals in a wide range of applications and can be used to remove pollutants from natural and built environments.

Catalysts efficiently and rapidly remove BPA from water  — ScienceDaily
Carnegie Mellon University chemist Terrence J. Collins has developed an approach that quickly and cheaply removes more than 99 percent of bisphenol A (BPA) from water. BPA, a ubiquitous and dangerous chemical used in the manufacturing of many plastics, is found in water sources around the world.