President

Frank Scholle

Frank earned his PhD in Microbiology in 2000 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He did his postdoctoral training at UTMB Galveston working on hepatitis C virus and West Nile virus and joined the faculty at North Carolina State University in 2005. He has worked on virus-host immune system interactions for a number of years and more recently on antimicrobial materials. Aside from killing viruses, Frank enjoys wildlife photography and writing loud angry music.

CTO

Reza Ghiladi

Originally born and raised in Baltimore, Reza received a B.S. in Chemistry from Haverford College in 1995, followed by graduate work at Johns Hopkins University, earning an M.A. in 1997 and a Ph.D. in 2001. After postdoctoral work at the Mayo Clinic and the University of California at San Francisco, he joined the Department of Chemistry at NC State in 2006 as an Assistant Professor where he has a research program in photodynamic antimicrobial materials for controlling nosocomial infections. As PI/co-PI, Prof. Ghiladi has raised over $3.4M in funding, including extramural support from the NSF, ARO, ACS, and the NC Biotechnology Center. In 2012, he was the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, in 2013 he received the LeRoy and Elva Martin Award for Teaching Excellence from the NC State College of Sciences, and in 2016 he received the university-wide NC State University Outstanding Teacher Award. More recently, he was named a University Faculty Scholar in 2019, and was appointed as the Director of Graduate Program for the Department of Chemistry in 2020.

CEO

Dimitris Argyropoulos

Dimitri left Greece when he was 18 to study at the University of London in the UK and then moved to McGill University in Montreal Canada for his doctorate work in organic polymer chemistry. This was followed by a faculty appointment with the McGill Chemistry department for another 14 years.  Looking for a sunny and warm climate the family moved then to Raleigh NC where he joined NC State in 2002 but his karma had it that the cold weather had to follow him with a joint appointment as the Finland Distinguished professor of Chemistry with the University of Helsinki for another 5 years. The work of his group deals with the structural elucidation and utilization of wood biopolymers for energy and materials. Aside from running away from the cold, Dimitri enjoys classical and jazz music as well as running. 

Director of Business and Commercialization

Robert Sheehan

Robert J. Sheehan is an executive who has more than 30 years experience in developing products and companies from initial idea through market launch and beyond. Experienced in General Management, Marketing, Marketing Research, Sales, Logistics and Customer Service in Pharmaceuticals and Consumer Products industries. His passion is to assist young entrepreneurs create and implement solid business plans to bring their visions to life.   It is for this reason he joined PhotoCide Protection in 2020. Bob also volunteers as an “Executive-in-Residence” in the North Carolina State University “TEC” program mentoring grad student teams and he mentors start-up companies through the Venture Mentoring Service (VMS) of the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) in Durham, NC