Felipe Gómez del Campo

Felipe Gómez del Campo’s science fair project is better than yours.

The founder and the CEO of FGC Plasma Solutions, a Cleveland-based company, is developing a novel fuel injector technology for jet engines and gas turbines that uses plasma to solve difficult combustion problems, leading to improvements in emissions, operability, safety and fuel efficiency. And yes, he started his research into this challenge as a high school science fair project.

Five years later he has secured a patent on the technology and raised over $700,000 in funding from the Department of Energy, Clean Energy Trust and others. In collaboration with NASA Glenn Research Center, he recently ran a proof of concept test on his technology, resulting in one of the most advanced demonstrations of plasma-assisted combustion to date. He’s currently working on FGC Plasma’s technology at Argonne National Laboratory as part of the inaugural cohort of Chain Reaction Innovations, a Department of Energy Laboratory Embedded Entrepreneurship program.

Felipe was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for 2016 in the energy category, and to Crain’s Chicago Business 20 in their 20s. He was recently honored by President Barack Obama at The White House as an emerging global entrepreneur, and won best paper at the 2014 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Conference. Named to the ‘Who’s Who to Watch in Technology’ by Crain’s Cleveland Business and as one of México’s six extraordinary young people by GQ Mexico, Felipe is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Aerospace, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. He was also selected by the State Department to represent the United States at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit.