Dr. Ike Levine combines 25+ years of applied algal farming, cultivar enhancement, and new product development with 15+ years of academic appointments. As a professor of algae at the University of Southern Maine, Ike has focused on inspiring the next generation of algae professionals. He also owned a 123-acre seaweed farm raising porphyra.
Pursuing his educational goals, Dr. Levine co-founded The Algae Foundation nine years ago, reaching hundreds of thousands of students in the USA and internationally. He co-created the Algae Prize in cooperation with the US Department of Energy as a student competition to develop, design, invent, or enhance a specific technology, cultivation, processing or new product development within the commercial algae value chain. Ike’s also the creative force behind the Algae Academy, a K-12 effort all about changing the perception of algae from “ick” to “awesome.”
In the not-too-distant future Ike hopes algae can become a part of many American farms, including spirulina microfarms, as have become popular in France and India. As he likes to say, “Algae can play a major part in saving the world… take a deep breath and thank the algae.”
Video produced by Spirulina Source, interview by Robert Henrikson ©2022
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