James Dyson Award past winners: Pyrus™, 2021

In the summer of 2018, before starting my undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois, I spent seven weeks in an indigenous community in rural Ecuador. There, I witnessed the environmental challenges locals faced – plastic waste accumulating, even in remote areas, and being burned in fire pits exposing children to harmful smoke. This experience drove me to focus my studies and career on sustainable materials dedicated to fostering harmony between humanity and nature, which lead to the creation of Pyrus™.

I first heard about the James Dyson Award from a design professor who shared inspiring stories of previous winners, such as Lucy Hughes, the inventor of MarinaTex, who focused on creating sustainable materials. I finally applied to the competition in 2021.

Winning the James Dyson Award significantly spread the word of Pyrus™ and my company Symmetry Wood. If not for the media coverage, including the World Economic Forum sharing the news on social media, I doubt that I would've ever met my business partner, Tim Keating, who has spent 35+ years campaigning against the use of endangered tropical hardwoods. We've now worked together for over 3 years, in which time we successfully overcame significant hurdles and proved ourselves to be a powerhouse team. My connection with Tim has been invaluable — and was made possible by the James Dyson Award.

Since the Award, Symmetry Wood won a Small Business Innovation Research contract with the Environmental Protection Agency, allowing us to set up full-time R&D and lab-scale production operations in the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator. I recently moved from Chicago to Los Angeles to support this transition!

We're also working with one of the largest kombucha breweries and pursuing co-development agreements with major guitar manufacturers. Pyrus™ was recently retrofitted into a professional acoustic guitar as a fretboard, played beautifully by LA-based artist Irene Diaz. While there is more formal lab testing to do, the Pyrus™ samples now being produced seem significantly stronger and much more scalable than the ones I had back in 2021. 

I've become much more knowledgeable, confident, and steady-handed in my work across design, science, and business. As a technically-oriented business owner, my days are anything but routine, ranging from prototyping new Pyrus™ samples and cultivating nanocellulose sheets, to tackling administrative tasks and networking with stakeholders. Recently, thanks to Tim, I've also become deeply invested in the pressing issue of rainforest logging. While I initially developed Pyrus™ with a general frustration about unsustainable materials, I now frequently raise awareness about how overlooked the issue of tropical hardwoods is. I wish I could have articulated as much back in 2021!

My biggest learning: prioritise the community building behind an invention as much as its technical development. No idea matures without a variety of supporters, and aligning those supporters effectively can take as much time as the engineering. Start sooner rather than later.

Our near-term goals are to strengthen our partnership with the government through the Small Business Innovation Research program, upgrade our manufacturing capabilities, and confirm our first major customers. 

Applicants should lean into the storytelling behind their inventions. Highlighting the pains and challenges they've overcome adds depth and excitement to their story. I strongly encourage applicants to thoughtfully articulate why they took on their endeavour, how they navigated past hurdles, and what fuels them to keep pushing forward. Projects that convey a strong sense of dedication always stand out to me.