KINGSTON, Tenn., Dec. 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gadolyn, Inc., an R&D 100 Award-winning company founded on DARPA-funded technology for sustainable rare earth magnet alloy manufacturing, today announced the appointments of Jack Lifton as Chair of its Advisory Board and Dr. Gareth Hatch as Member of the Advisory Board. These appointments strengthen Gadolyn’s leadership as it advances commercialization of its U.S.-based manufacturing platform for rare earth magnet and strategic alloys. Founded by award-winning researchers Dr. Orlando Rios and David Weiss, Gadolyn is led by Dr. Chris Haase, former Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute (CMI), a multi-institutional consortium established in 2013 by Ames National Laboratory to address supply-chain risks in critical materials.
Gadolyn’s proprietary DIRECT process efficiently produces rare earth and strategic magnet alloys in a single step through co-reduction of multiple metal oxides with no harmful emissions. The company’s proprietary platform delivers substantial improvements in energy efficiency (95% lower energy intensity), production cost, and throughput speed, offering a cleaner, faster, and more feedstock-flexible alternative to conventional molten salt electrolysis methods. This breakthrough directly addresses one of the most critical bottlenecks in the strategic materials supply chain, the midstream alloying stage, by enabling low-CAPEX and low-OPEX domestic on-demand production.
Together, Mr. Lifton and Dr. Hatch bring more than 80 years of combined expertise in rare earths, magnets, critical material supply chains, and defense-related materials strategy, further strengthening Gadolyn’s leadership as it scales sustainable domestic capacity for rare earth alloy production and supports domestic and international initiatives for supply chain resilience.
Mr. Lifton is a globally recognized authority on rare earth elements and critical minerals, with a career spanning five decades in the automotive, electronics, mining, and refining industries. He currently serves as Co-Chair of the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) and has advised the U.S. Department of Energy and numerous governments and corporations on building secure and resilient access to strategic materials.
Dr. Hatch is a leading expert in and advisor on rare earth magnet technology, materials processing, and supply chain development. A visiting professor at the University of Birmingham and former Interim CEO of the Rare Earth Industry Association (REIA), he holds multiple patents on permanent magnets and other technologies and has been honored with the IEEE Magnetics Society Distinguished Service Award and the NATO Science & Technology Organization AVT Panel Team Excellence Award.
“Jack and Gareth are world-class leaders of the modern critical materials and rare earth ecosystem,” said Dr. Haase, President & CEO of Gadolyn. “Jack’s global supply chain leadership and Gareth’s deep technical and industrial expertise are invaluable as Gadolyn expands its single step, co-reduction oxide-to-alloy platform to industrial scale to produce NdFeB, SmCo, and FeDy magnet alloys with no harmful emissions, over 95% less energy than molten salt electrolysis, and unmatched scalability for industrial applications and commercial markets.”
“I am honored to chair Gadolyn’s Advisory Board,” said Mr. Lifton. “The company’s novel co-reduction platform enables feedstock-flexible, scalable alloy production that addresses one of the most critical choke points in Western supply chains: the ability to make finished rare earth magnet alloys cleanly, economically, and domestically.”
“I am excited to join Gadolyn at this pivotal stage,” said Dr. Hatch. “This technology’s combination of efficiency, scalability, and environmental integrity positions Gadolyn as a transformative force in the global rare earth magnet supply chain and advances U.S. leadership in next-generation electrification technologies.”
About Gadolyn
Gadolyn, Inc. is a 2025 R&D 100 Award-winning company whose DARPA-funded DIRECT technology produces rare earth magnet and strategic alloys directly from oxide feedstocks in a single co-reduction step, without toxic emissions or fluorinated byproducts. The company was founded by Dr. Chris Haase, former Director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute; Dr. Orlando Rios, Gadolyn’s Chief Technology Officer and a nationally recognized, award-winning researcher; and Mr. David Weiss, Gadolyn’s Chief Operating Officer and a distinguished R&D executive and American Foundry Society John A. Penton Gold Medal winner.
Gadolyn’s demonstration facility operates in the United States, with plans underway to establish a dedicated manufacturing capability supporting industrial and commercial demand for high performance, sustainable alloys. The company’s modular reactors are engineered for rapid scale-up and distributed deployment, enabling low-cost, low-emission alloy production using domestic feedstocks.
For additional information, please contact [email protected].
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