On 22 June 2023, Chuck Allen flew over from Chicago to the UK to open The Leighton Laboratories, Sloan Water Technology. Chuck was accompanied by his wife and a members of his staff. Chuck and his sons had all agreed that the new facility should be named after the inventor of the technology, and their unswerving support for the endeavour to address currently insoluble tasks through its used was hugely appreciated by the team. Such tasks (which were memorialised in the plaque commemorating the opening by the words ‘Mighty works from tiny ripples’) can be illustrated by two targets:
- by 2050, there will be an extra 2 billion people to feed, and the global 5-point plan to feed then highlights increasing shelf-life as critical: currently 50% of food by weight (and 25% by calorific value) rots before it can be consumed – SWT’s technology has been shown to remove bacteria from salad and increase its shelf life;
- by 2050, anti-microbial resistance (AMR, the growing resistance of bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites to antibiotics, antiviral medication, anti-fungal medication and parasite-medication, respectively), will be killing more people than cancer, and have cost the global economy more than the current size of the world economy. At The Leighton Laboratories, SWT is developing technology to reduce the world’s reliance on antibiotics.
Chuck told the team how he had first flown over from the USA with his son Jim, to meet Professor Leighton on 21 January 2016, after Jim had heard a news item on his car radio about the Professor’s inventions. He told the team about their close friendship and the shared vision they had of making the world a better place by using the inventions to bring about changes on a societal scale.
Chuck unveiled the plaque and cut the ribbon to open The Leighton Laboratories, before a champagne toast to their success. Following a break in SWT’s cafeteria Chuck, Gayla and his staff met a patient and their carer, and SWT’s on-staff clinician, to better understand the problems SWT was seeking to solve. They then toured the Physical Science laboratory, the Mechanical Engineering laboratory, the Electronic Engineering Laboratory, and the Workshop area, before donning protective gear to be shown around the Microbiology and Tissue laboratory, which had newly been certified by the Health and Safety Executive to handle Containment Level 2 pathogens. The tour ended in the administration area.
The whole team at SWT were inspired by Chuck’s enthusiasm and support, and look forward to future visits by members of the family.