John Davis
My name is John Davis and I studied chemistry at Illinois State University under Dr. Cheryl D. Stevenson and at Notre Dame under Dr. Bradley D. Smith. Currently, I work as a consultant for petrochemical and general manufacturing facilities, but like most people, I have worked a number of different jobs.
One summer I gained some experience pouring concrete, and I used some of what I learned from that experience to help solve the InnoCentive Challenge “Breaking Viscous Shear of Crude Oil”. Concrete vibrators are used to allow the concrete to easily flow into fine cracks and crevices, and also are used to restore liquid flow to concrete that has begun to set-up prematurely. I realized that with some minor modifications, pneumatic concrete vibrators could solve the problem of Breaking the Viscous Shear of Crude Oil by restoring liquid flow to the icy slush mixture.
I plan to take a vacation and visit OSRI in Cordova Alaska when it gets warmer. It means a lot to me to know that my Innocentive Solution was used by OSRI because their work is so important. It is very exciting to know that my idea is helping their cause. I intend to make a donation to OSRI with some of the award money so that they can find the most environmentally friendly means to clean up oil spills.
For more details on my story, click here to watch my video on YouTube.
Tags: John Davis, OSRI
September 4th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
[...] by the New York Times, to separate oil from water in recovery barges. That Challenge was solved by John Davis, an oil-industry outsider. We find that many of the best solutions on our network come from outside [...]
April 11th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Hats off to John, have a great vacation..
I blog at http://collaboratetoinnovate.blogspot.com/
April 12th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
[...] solutions to their Challenges are found. There is no better example of this than that of Solver John Davis, who used his expertise in the concrete industry to solve a Challenge about removing oil from the [...]
April 12th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
[...] more efficient way to get to more smart individuals, more quickly. This is evolving, as Innocentive celebrates the successful solvers (and they can take credit for the solutions they devise) and Innocentive is exploring ways to [...]