NuMat Technologies: Solving the World's Toughest Challenges at the Atomic Level

The modern world runs on systems: computing systems, electrical systems, hardware systems, infrastructural systems, etc. But there’s a common factor that amalgamates all these systems, and that is chemistry. Yes, chemistry! The pure life science plays a far more important role than we give credit for. There are so many systems, companies, and businesses running due to the successful integration of chemistry.

We have with us NuMat Technologies, Inc., a company that is an innovative intersection of chemistry, hardware systems, and high-performance computing.  Now isn’t that a unique combination? NuMat has a diverse clientele base with its leading partners coming from life-sciences, semiconductor, and other energy sectors. Recognized as a leader in the field of MOFs (metal-organic frameworks), NuMat designs and develops material-enabled products.

“Innovation is at the core of who we are”

The MOFs today are an emerging class of nanoporous materials and the story of how NuMat was founded is closely linked with it. It all started when Benjamin Hernandez met Omar Farha, a young research faculty member in the department of chemistry and another Ph.D. student in chemical engineering, Christopher Wilmer at the Northwestern University. All of their research was focused on MOFs nanomaterials that are high-performance computing to design cutting-edge materials and its applications.

Apart from the similar research, there was another uniting factor that brought the three together: a shared vision of what the future might be with MFOs. They figured that the MFOs could solve complex societal challenges such as carbon capture or energy storage. They imagined the possibilities in solving the real problems if they succeeded in commercializing this technology. With this vision, they set out and established NuMat.

Founded in 2012, NuMat is today a leading force in molecular manufacturing that are atomically precise. Six years later, the company is delivering its solutions to end-markets like transportation, life science, chemicals, electronics, etc. “We are a diverse team of innovators with expertise in computational modeling, predictive analytics, material design, scale-up, hardware system integration, and manufacturing,” says the co-founder and CEO, Benjamin Hernandez. “All focused on designing next-generation products that unlock value for our customers and partners.”

Solutions, even for the most demanding requirements

With NuMat, the solutions are unique and engineered even for the toughest demands. Let’s take a glimpse at what makes these solutions so unique:

Solutions that are atomically engineered

“The biggest problems often require the smallest solutions,” Ben says. Being a pioneer in MOFs, NuMat has created a breakthrough with these MOFs material class. Known for its larger surface areas, near-infinite combinatorial possibilities and highly tunable porosities, NuMat has programmed them to interact with target molecules in ways that incumbent material technologies cannot.

Hello Big Data

The MOFs are designed for modern computing infrastructure and other places as well. “Using our world-class discovery platform, we create millions of hypothetical structures, store these structures in databases, and then use high-performance computing to rapidly simulate their properties,” says the co-founder. “We then experimentally validate the performance of materials through an automated workflow, providing a powerful prediction-meets-data feedback loop,” he explains.

Novel Technology

Be it materials in milligram or tons, NuMat supports it all with its commercial-scale and state-of-the-art operations. “Beyond scale-up, our dedicated team of process engineers brings years of expertise in yield optimization, post-synthesis processing, and material formation,” Ben notes. “These capabilities are critical in informing our development activities, supporting rapid prototyping, and ensuring we prioritize scalable, cost-enabled materials.”

Design and Engineering

Yes, NuMat is primarily concentrates on material discovery. However, apart from this, the company also dedicates its core expertise to build, rapidly design, and integrate hardware systems as well. All of this is supported by novel material technologies. “To do this, we focus first on the performance requirements of fully integrated systems,” explains Ben. “We then work backward to identify the enabling properties of candidate materials which will translate to our target performance requirements.”

Hello Inventor

Benjamin Hernandez, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

Ben is the CEO of NuMat and a member of the board of directors. In this role, he is responsible for managing the rapid scale-up of NuMat’s application platform and all other aspects of the business. An engineer by training, he also received graduate degrees in law and business at Northwestern University.

Prior to NuMat, Ben was an operations professional at a global private equity and venture capital firm with over $30 B in invested capital. In this capacity, he led board-level strategy, operations, and human capital initiatives at material technology companies to drive enterprise growth. He has also worked as a management consultant at a top-tier firm and as an engineer in the aerospace defense industry.

“Our rich technical depth is complemented by a team of seasoned executives with a track record of commercializing technology platforms which provide the foundation for future growth.”

“Using our world-class discovery platform, we create millions of hypothetical structures, store these structures in databases, and then use high-performance computing to rapidly simulate their properties.”

“Our experience shows this is the key capability gap in material commercialization. NuMat’s team brings years of experience in successfully developing the material-enabled product platforms the world wants and needs.”