Meet an innovator: Dr Martin Markotsis

Dr Martin Markotsis of Scion has a passion for environmentally friendly materials. He describes how this passion, along with other personal skills and attributes, help him drive innovation forward.

Jargon alert

Fossil fuels Materials such as coal, oil and natural gas formed from the fossilised remains of plants that lived many millions of years ago. Often burned as fuel.

Transcript

Dr Martin Markotsis

For me, I have a strong passion for environmentally friendly materials. I really enjoy working with plastics, and when you can make plastic materials that have an environmental benefit or are less damaging to the environment or don’t use fossil fuels, that gives me an extra drive and a passion to develop an end product. I quite like the biospife as an end product because it is so visible and it’s kind of cute and has a novelty value that helps, helps drive the project forward.

I think that working with a team that is passionate to the end goal has helped me learn to keep my eye on that end product or end application so that, when you have a setback or there are issues, you can go, if we work out the solution, there will be this awesome end product.

Voiceover

Martin identifies key personal skills that help him contribute to innovation.

Dr Martin Markotsis

My personal energy levels, my personal ability to cope with setbacks and bring the problems as they occurred back to the drawing board, not let them knock me back in a way that I would give up, but then work with my team and drive for a solution.

Acknowledgements: Dr Martin Markotsis, SCION Alistair Mowat, ZESPRI Scion