Engineering at the Edge
September 11, 2019

UBC Okanagan’s Kevin Golovin is developing new materials that will save lives and reduce energy consumption. He recently received a $100,000 Wall Solutions grant from the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies to work on an effective, affordable and environmentally benign way to repel mosquitos.
Golovin is an engineer with a specialty in materials science, and the founder of the OPERA lab (Okanagan Polymer Engineering Research and Applications). His focus there is on creating surfaces or coatings that repel ice, water and/or other liquids, or coatings that make boat hulls super slippery, so they use less energy to pass through the water.
Repelling mosquitos is a sideline, something Golovin stumbled into after having worked briefly as the vice president of technology for a US paint company.