Telangana native Dr Sheeba wins US Startup Battlefield competition

Warangal: Minerva Lithium, a university spinout company from the University of North Carolina (NC) at Greensboro and the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering in Greensboro, (NC), co-founded by Dr Sheeba Dawood from Warangal, has won an award in Startup Battlefield, a competition held by ‘TechCrunch’ in October, 2022. Minerva Lithium develops critical mineral extraction techniques.

Sheeba, who is also the CEO of the company, obtained PhD in Nanoscience from the University of North Carolina in 2020, also won the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) entrepreneur award besides winning outstanding researcher award from a reputed company in the USA, according to her father Dawood Ali, who is an educationist.

TechCrunch, a USA-based online newspaper, has been focusing on high tech and startup companies since its inception in 2005. It hosts an annual tech conference, TechCrunch Disrupt, in several cities in the United States and Europe. “I’m also a TEDx speaker in Greensboro. I could achieve success in my career due to encouragement from my parents who are teachers,” said Sheeba Dawood.

She did her Masters degree in Nanotechnology from the Amity University, Delhi, India, before moving to the US to get a PhD degree. She did her schooling in Warangal. Sheeba has earned a name as an expert in developing environmentally benign coordination polymer frameworks for environmental remediation and critical materials extraction, and she has got a place in the list of top 17 CEO’s of the United States in the Mineral Space, according to a newspaper.

Dr James G Ryan, a retired a Professor of Nanoscience of North Carolina, Agricultural and Technical State University (A&T), in his endorsement in the LinkedIn, said that Sheeba Dawood had developed significant expertise in physical and electrical materials characterization as well as cleanroom skills in thin film technology and patterning methods.