Taste of Tech Seminar: Phytomines: Sustainable Recovery of Essential Metals from Soil Using Plants | Leveraging NSF I-Corps to Turn Your Groundbreaking Research into Market-Ready Innovations
Time and Date
3/09/2026
11:45 AM – 1:00 PM (EST)
Agenda
Lunch: 11:45 – 12:00 Talk 1: 12:00 – 12:20 Networking: 12:20 – 12:40 Talk 2: 12:40 – 1:00
Talk 1: Phytomines: Sustainable Recovery of Essential Metals from Soil Using Plants
Presentation Overview: Critical metals are essential for the manufacturing of advanced technologies, and securing reliable supplies of these elements is vital to the U.S. economy. However, the supply of several critical metals is increasingly challenged by global market instability and rapidly growing domestic demand. Nickel is a key clean-technology metal, yet U.S. domestic production remains limited, leaving the national nickel supply chain particularly fragile. Phytomining is a biotechnological approach that uses specialized plants, known as hyperaccumulators, to extract and concentrate essential metals and rare earth elements from soil into their biomass. Unlike most plants, hyperaccumulators can tolerate high metal concentrations and sequester metals in their aerial tissues, which can then be harvested and processed to recover target elements. Advances in modern biotechnology like CRISPR-based genome editing provides new opportunities to develop hyperaccumulator plants optimizedfor specific metals and soil conditions, offering a sustainable and scalable strategy to complement conventional mining and strengthen domestic metal supply chains.
Jeongim Kim
About the Speaker
Jeongim Kim is an Associate Professor in the Horticultural Sciences Department, IFAS at the University of Florida. She received her Ph.D and completed postdoctoral training at Purdue University. Since joining UF in 2017, she has led the Biochemical Genetics Lab. Her research focuses on plant specialized metabolism and the plant growth-defense tradeoff, with the goal of enhancing plant growth and nutritional values through genetic engineering. She is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award (2022), the UF Excellence Award for Assistant Professor (2023), and was named one of the 25 inspiring women in plant biology in 2024. She is the lead PI of the ARPA-E project, ‘Nickel Farming: Improving a US-native Hyperaccumulator Plant for Commercial Cultivation.’
Talk 2: Leveraging NSF I-Corps to Turn Your Groundbreaking Research into Market-Ready Innovations
Presentation Overview: Innovators are creating discoveries with the power to transform society, but innovations stall because researchers lack structured guidance and proven strategies to de-risk technologies and navigate commercialization pathways. If you are an innovator or entrepreneur, the nationally recognized NSF I Corps training program is a critical resource to help you advance your ideas from lab to market. Join UF Innovate and the NSF I-Corps team to learn how you can leverage this experiential training program to explore the commercial potential of your ideas, develop a viable business model, and build entrepreneurial skills. UF is a partner in the NSF I-Corps Southeast Hub and offers free I-Corps training that is open to all innovators and entrepreneurs in the region.
Anita Rao
About the Speaker
Anita Rao is the Program Director of NSF I-Corps at UF as well as UF Innovate I Pathways – the UF Innovate unit that offers training and support resources to innovators to advance ideas from lab to market. Anita has been instrumental in UF’s engagement in NSF I-Corps and has led the establishment of NSF I-Corps infrastructure at UF and the implementation of NSF I-Corps training inside and outside the classroom. Anita has 25+ years of experience licensing biomedical inventions and spinning out new start-ups. She mentors innovators and has co-developed and taught intellectual property and commercialization-oriented training courses. In addition, Anita manages the UF Innovate Innovation Fund program to advance technology translation and she collaborates with internal and external stakeholders on programs to support innovation, commercialization/entrepreneurship, and economic development.
Aaron Costin
About the Speaker
Dr. Aaron Costin began his entrepreneurship journey in 2014 as a graduate student at Georgia Tech, where he explored the intersection of research and commercialization through programs such as NSF I-Corps. He has since founded multiple ventures, including S3 BIM Tech and his current startup, Kyaron Technologies, which develops AI- and IoT-enabled solutions for the construction industry. As a faculty member in the College of Design, Construction and Planning, he advises multiple student groups, is affiliated with various entrepreneurship initiatives, and mentors emerging innovators in transforming bold ideas into real-world impact. He also serves as an NSF I-Corps instructor at UF.