Luke Haverhals, PhD

Luke’s professional mission is to collaborate with and empower material scientists, manufacturing workers and engineers, investors, change-makers, creators, and brands around the world to create a fully circular, holistically sustainable, low-carbon material economy from the ground up.

Luke earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Iowa before going on to explore all-natural alternatives to petroleum-derived synthetic plastics as an Assistant Research Professor at the US Naval Academy. His vision to develop bio-neutral, high-performance materials from renewable natural nutrient inputs has become the foundation for NFW’s ecosystem of patented, paradigm-shifting material technologies. Luke has given dozens of invited international presentations on the intersection of materials science with fashion, footwear and other related trillion-dollar consumer industries.

In an industry awash with incremental solutions, Luke is leading NFW to drive a moonshot systems-level shift away from petroleum-derived products and toxic chemistries. Luke was named IPOEF Inventor of the Year in 2022. Luke is an Unreasonable Group Fellow, Forbes Council Member, and World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneer, and graduate of The Circulars Accelerator, Fashion for Good Scaling Programme, and the Nation Science Foundation I-Corps Program.