About XploSafe
What's New
In The Media
NewsOK: A new weapon to improve national security and safety in laboratories working with explosive chemicals has been created by a fledgling business formed at Oklahoma State University.
OSU business graduate Shoaib Shaikh and associate chemistry professors and research scientists Allen Apblett and Nick Materer are the creative minds at XploSafe LLC , which makes a nanotechnology-based ink that cha... Read More »
I2E: Innovators and entrepreneurs in Oklahoma - Detecting and Busting Bombs Before They Explode.
Earlier this year, Shoaib Shaikh, Liviu Pavel, and Jessie Loeffler decided to enter the 2009 Venture Challenge, an international competition for graduate students from around the world held in San Diego, CA. They needed a business plan. Read More »
Former OSU student makes professors research his business, XploSafe, LLC. is a company developing the commercial promise of two Oklahoma State University professors research into bomb detection and defusing. Read More »
Company News
No New News
Our Mission
Our mission is to create safe environments through chemical detection and neutralization
XploSafe, LLC aims to become a leading provider of critical safety solutions for National Security and Laboratory safety. Our innovative technologies protect people that deal with explosive and unstable compounds. XploSafe is committed to exceptional research to maintain itself on the leading edge of technological development.
XploSafe, LLC, based in Stillwater, OK, was created on June 2, 2009 as a start-up company to commercialize technology for detection of peroxide, chlorate, and nitro based explosives through a variety of explosive sensors. It is our goal at XploSafe to utilize the technology, initially developed with funding from the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) at the Oklahoma State University, to provide a real-time detection and prevention system for improvised explosives. The explosive sensors represent a significant opportunity to establish a highly successful company in Oklahoma to serve extensive, lucrative national and international markets in homeland security, military, and commercial endeavors.
XploSafe, LLC is managed by Shoaib Shaikh. Dr. Allen Apblett and Dr. Nick Materer, the two original inventors serve as Co-Chief Scientific Officers. XploSafe has secured an option agreement from the Oklahoma State University to exclusively negotiate the terms for licensing its nanometric ink technology for detection of explosives. A consequent technology for protection of industrial/lab solvents (Solvent Protection System) is developed by researchers at XploSafe.
XploSafe, LLC has successfully launched its first generation products and is seeking to raise start-up investment capital to commercialize the technologies
The XploSafe Team
Management Team
Dr. Allen Apblett - Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer
Allen Apblett received a B.S. (Honours) degree from The University of New Brunswick in 1984 and then graduate school at The University of Calgary under the supervision of Dr. Tristam Chivers where he received a Ph.D. in March 1989. He was awarded a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship that he took up at Harvard University in Dr. Andrew Barron’s research group. In 1991 he became an assistant professor at Tulane University and then moved to Oklahoma State University in 1997. He has published over 86 scientific papers or book chapters, made over 100 presentations in the past 7 years, and graduated 15 Ph.D. and 7 M.S. students. Among the awards that Dr. Apblett has received are the ACS Environmental Division Certificate of Merit, nomination as a member of Project Kaleidoscope’s Faculty for the 21st Century, a Mortar Board Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Governor General of Canada’s Medal, and a Lilly Endowment Teaching Fellowship and OSU’s College of Arts and Science Junior Faculty Excellence in Research Award.
Dr. Nick Materer - Co-Founder, Chief Scientific Officer
Nick Materer received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with Honors from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1990. In 1995 he received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley under the guidance of Professor Gabor Somorjai and Dr. Michel Van Hove. After UC Berkeley, he was offered a postdoctoral fellow position in the group of Stephen R. Leone at JILA and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Colorado. In 1998, Dr. Materer became a faculty member in the department of chemistry at Oklahoma State University and was promoted to the Associate Professor level in the summer of 2004. His research involves experimental surface science studies of interfacial chemistry and physics. Ongoing projects are exploration the surface chemistry of silicon with organic molecules, chemical mechanism for detection and desensitizing of explosives and corrosion sensors for our ageing infrastructure. He was recently awarded Junior Faculty Award for Scholarly Excellence at Oklahoma State University's College of Arts and Science.
Shoaib Shaikh - Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Shoaib Shaikh received his Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration – Finance from Oklahoma State University – Tulsa and his MBA - Finance from Oklahoma State University in May 2009. Shoaib has leadership experience working as a Lead Business Analyst and Project Lead in the banking industry. Additionally, he is a founder and former VP of Information for the Student Investment Club at Oklahoma State University. Shoaib served as the VP of Social Development for the MBA Association, he is also a trustee of The Link Education Trust.
