| Alumni
Profile: Joseph
Wilson, BS '77 |
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Wilson's List:
Favorite fishing destinations:
- Islamorada, Fla. (tuna and dolphin)
- Inland waterways around Naples/Marco Island, Fla. (sheepshead,
redfish, drum)
- Manistee, Mich. (trolling for Chinook salmon)
- Walker, Minn. (pike and bass)
- Puerto Rico (marlin)
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Small company tackles big problems
Headquartered in Indianapolis, WR² maintains a research
facility in Rensselaer, N.Y., and a European subsidiary in Scotland.
The company's main focus is selling processing systems to hospitals,
diagnostic centers and research facilities as a way to dispose of biohazardous
and biological waste. This may include organs and amputated limbs, but
also hard hospital waste such as needles, lab cultures, blood vials,
or surgical sheets.
Wilson says chemical tissue digestion has several advantages over incineration,
but admits he spends quite a bit of time evangelizing about his company.
"People have been using incineration and steam in autoclaves for
100 years," he says. "Until recently, non-incinerating technologies
were viewed as gimmicks. But now there is a demand for our technology."
Wilson hopes to grow the company from the current 35 employees to over
400 in the next two to three years. "We're a little company with
great technology, and we're bringing it to bear on the problems,"
he says.
Wilson's favorite memories of Purdue are of the Department of Forestry's
summer camp and of the time spent at his Purdue home of Terry Courts.
"I had a big bunch of friends there. Lived there all four years,"
Wilson recalls. "We had the highest GPA and highest rate of return
of any dorm on campus. We were all so close it was like we were fraternity
brothers."
After graduating, Wilson married his sweetheart, Barbara, from his hometown
of Speedway, and they have four children, Luke, Samantha, Hanna and
Chelsea. Wilson proudly points out that his two oldest both attend Purdue.
Luke is a junior in agricultural economics, and Samantha is a freshman
in pre-veterinary medicine. "And when my other two are old enough,
they're going to go to Purdue, too," he says.
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