3 Houston innovators to know this week

who's who

This week's roundup of Houston innovators includes Barbar Burger of Chevron, David Aaronson of REVs, and Andrea Young of DonateStock. Courtesy photos

Editor's note: In this week's roundup of Houston innovators to know, I'm introducing you to three local innovators across industries — from energy to fintech — recently making headlines in Houston innovation.

Barbara Burger, vice president of innovation at Chevron and president of Chevron Technology Ventures

The InnovationMap Awards will celebrate Barbara Burger, vice president of innovation at Chevron and president of Chevron Technology Ventures, as this year's Trailblazer Award honoree. Photo courtesy of CTV

The inaugural Trailblazer Award at the 2021 InnovationMap Awards event was established to honor a Houston innovation leader and advocate who's making a lasting impact on the Houston innovation community. Barbara Burger, vice president of innovation at Chevron and president of Chevron Technology Ventures, was selected to receive award.

"I am deeply honored to be recognized for my contributions to the Houston Innovation Ecosystem. I moved to Houston in 2013 and in short order was included and saw ways I could contribute. That is a great welcome! While I am proud of my contributions and our progress, we are just getting started," Burger says.

Burger leads Chevron's corporate venture arm, Chevron Technology Ventures, which has invested millions in the future of energy technology. This type of corporate venture activity — especially in a city with so many Fortune 500 companies — plays a key role in an innovation community. Click here to read more.

David Aaronson, founder of REVS

David Aaronson of REVS shares his EV entrepreneurial journey on the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of REVS

It might not be today, and it might not be tomorrow, but electric vehicles are coming into Texas at an increasing rate. EVolve Houston, founded in part by the city, predicts that EV sales locally will make up 30 percent of annual new car sales by 2030. Aaronson says they reported that Houston has around 15,000 EVs on the road today, but by 2030, that's going to be 600,000.

"If it's not 2030 it's going to be 2032, because it's all the manufacturers are making," David Aaronson, founder of REVS, says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "It's just a matter of time."

Andrea Young, co-founder and CEO of DonateStock

DonateStock, a Houston fintech company that simplifies the stock donation process, has officially launched. Image courtesy of DonateStock

A few years back, Andrea Young donated some of her stock, and the process, while having its perks, wasn't worth the trouble.

"I valued the immense benefits stock donations provided me as an investor while simultaneously helping a nonprofit," Young says of her early experience with donating stock. "I enjoyed the significant tax advantages that allowed me to avoid capital gains taxes while deducting the full market value of my gifted stock. However, I found the entire process time consuming and cumbersome, which led to the end of my stock donation journey."

When the pandemic hit and nonprofits were greatly impacted, Young and her co-founder saw an opportunity to found DonateStock to help drive donations and guide nonprofits and donors alike through the process. During its beta testing phase, the company partnered with almost 100 nonprofits. Click here to read more.

David Aaronson of REVS shares his EV entrepreneurial journey on the Houston Innovators Podcast. Photo courtesy of REVS

How this entrepreneur is preparing Houston for the future of electric vehicles

Houston innovators podcast episode 97

If you live in Texas and you drive an electric vehicle, you probably own a home — mostly because homeowners have a place to safely charge their vehicle. Apartment dwellers don't have that option in most residences. But David Aaronson is trying to change that.

Aaronson, a Houston real estate veteran, founded Refuel Electric Vehicle Solutions, or REVS, last year to become the go-between for multifamily property owners and managers and the charging technology providers. Basically, Aaronson, a reseller for EV charging ports, is targeting multifamily companies and brokering the deal to install one or two charging ports now — as well as supporting scalability for when even more EVs hit the Texas roads.

"It's a new industry," Aaronson says on this week's episode of the Houston Innovators Podcast. "You have the manufacturers who are all so busy — they really don't have the time to find new business."

So REVS picks up the slack to provide a service that's only going to grow in demand. On his plate right now is educating his clients and potential clients.

"We find that with everyone we run into, there's an education process," he explains.

From what types of technology is available to whether or not the property is even equipped with enough electricity to support a charging station, Aaronson says he has to go through this process with everyone. Another challenge he faces is his potential clients not seeing the benefits at the moment. He says some of the property managers want to kick the can down the road, so to speak, but that road is getting shorter and shorter.

EVolve Houston, founded in part by the city, predicts that EV sales locally will make up 30 percent of annual new car sales by 2030. Aaronson says they reported that Houston has around 15,000 EVs on the road today, but by 2030, that's going to be 600,000.

"If it's not 2030 it's going to be 2032, because it's all the manufacturers are making," Aaronson says. "It's just a matter of time."

By installing the equipment, Aaronson says he's offering multifamily property owners a new revenue stream because tenants will pay to use the charging station. Plus, it's a perk that can be a dealbreaker for future residents.

"If you just have one person driving an electric vehicle that doesn't lease at your apartment because you don't have a station, you've lost money," he says on the show.

Aaronson explains he got into this new business that he now has such a passion for, as well as how how he's excited to grow his company alongside the growth of EVs and their necessary infrastructure on the episode. Listen to the full interview below — or wherever you stream your podcasts — and subscribe for weekly episodes.

In the coming weeks, REVS plans to set up EV charging stations at properties in Texas and California. Photo courtesy of REVS

Houston EV charging station startup gets ready to roll out services across the country

revving up for growth

A Houston startup is revving up the region's — and the country's — supply of charging stations for electric vehicles.

The company, Refuel Electric Vehicle Solutions (REVS), recently installed its first two charging stations. They're at two properties in Houston: the Briar Forest Lofts apartment complex, located in the Energy Corridor, and Lakeview RV Resort, located at North Holmes and Hiram Clarke roads.

REVS plans to roll out its offering — consulting, installation, and management services for electric vehicle (EV) charging stations — to multifamily and commercial real estate properties across the U.S. Those properties include apartment complexes, office buildings, hotels, and shopping centers.

In the coming weeks, REVS plans to set up EV charging stations at properties in Texas and California.

Customers of REVS can take advantage of revenue-sharing and marketing arrangements, as well as green or carbon credits.

Commercial real estate veteran David Aaronson, president and CEO of REVS, and son Mike Aaronson, head of operations, founded the company to address what they say is a growing need for EV charging stations in the commercial real estate and sustainability sectors.

Miami Beach, Florida-based Blink Charging Co. makes the EV charging stations installed by REVS. Blink, which is publicly traded, recently raised $232 million in equity to fuel its growth.

As EVs "become more prevalent, it is imperative that commercial real estate and multifamily owners and operators realize that their assets will provide the future infrastructure for charging these vehicles," David Aaronson says in a news release.

One forecast predicts the global market for EV charging stations will surpass $248.2 billion by 2030. Another report anticipates the number of EV charging stations around the world will grow from more than 2.1 million in 2020 to nearly 30.8 million by 2027.

In the U.S., the number of EVs is poised to take off. A study by The Brattle Group, a consulting firm in Boston, forecasts the number of EVs in this country will jump from 1.5 million in 2020 to between 10 million and 35 million by 2030.

The study goes on to say that an infrastructure investment of $75 billion to $125 billion would be required to accommodate 20 million EVs on U.S. roads by 2030. Those dollar figures include the addition of 1 million to 2 million EV charging stations.

In North America, an estimated 80 percent of EV charging happens at home, but experts expect the share of charging done at office buildings and other places to increase.

"When it comes to electric vehicles, commercial real estate owners and operators face one fundamental question: Do they wait for a tidal wave of EVs on the road to add charging stations to new and existing buildings, or get ahead of that tsunami?" Commercial Real Estate Executive observed last year. "The answer increasingly is if they dawdle, they run the risk of finding themselves behind the times."

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New report ranks Texas among top 10 states where AI could disrupt jobs

AI Workforce

A new nationwide report examining where AI could "reshape" the most jobs has ranked Texas No. 9 among the most at-risk states for AI job disruption.

The new SmartAsset report compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia to calculate the estimated percent of the workforce employed in the 26 occupations with the highest AI exposure, as determined by June 2026 research by the Virginia Economic Information and Analytics Division.

The findings revealed that 500,000 Texas workers, or 3.55 percent of the total workforce, are employed in occupations with "high exposure to potential AI disruption."

This also places the Lone Star State as the 9th most at-risk state in the U.S. where AI exposure can lead to "declining hiring demand, wage pressure, task automation, and other forms of disruption."

"States with larger concentrations of highly exposed occupations could experience more pronounced labor-market changes, particularly in roles where core tasks are more vulnerable to AI-driven restructuring," the report's author wrote.

Texas' biggest cities, like Houston and Austin, are known for their thriving tech and business industries, and the study noted that many of the occupations within those sectors are the most at risk. The Virginia Economic Information and Analytics Division said the top five most AI-exposed occupations in the U.S. are: mathematicians, proofreaders, correspondence clerks, court reporters, and media and communication workers. Additionally, computer programmers, database administrators, web developers, telephone operators, and communications equipment operators round out the top 10 most at-risk positions.

These are the 16 remaining occupations most exposed to AI disruption, in order:

Data Entry Keyers
Statistical Assistants
Office Support Workers
Interpreters and Translators
Database Architects
Software Quality Assurance Analysts
Medical Transcriptionists
Software Developers
Writers and Authors
Payroll Clerks
Web Designers
Miscellaneous Computer Occupations
Insurance Claims Processors
Telemarketers
Computer Numerically Controlled Tool Programmers
Bookkeeping and Accounting Clerks

A separate SmartAsset report from April 2026 found about 20.5 percent of Texas workers use AI to do their jobs in some capacity. That trend will continue to shift further as employers and employees choose to adopt — or reject — AI implementation.

Across the U.S., Washington topped the list as the state with the highest concentration of AI-exposed jobs, with nearly 5.7 percent of the state's workforce employed in the 26 most at-risk positions. SmartAsset said Washington's high prevalence of technology companies is a significant factor that skyrocketed the state to the top of the list.

"Home to major technology companies including Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile and Expedia, the state has large numbers of computer programmers and software developers, two occupations with high exposure," the report said.

Meanwhile, Mississippi ranked No. 51 with the lowest concentration of AI-exposed jobs in the nation. About 22,500 workers in Mississippi, or 1.93 percent of its workforce, are at risk for AI disruption.

The top 10 states where AI could reshape the most jobs are:

No. 1 – Washington
No. 2 – Virginia
No. 3 – District of Columbia
No. 4 – California
No. 5 – Utah
No. 6 – Maryland
No. 7 – Colorado
No. 8 – New Hampshire
No. 9 – Texas
No. 10 – North Carolina

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

UH lands $1.2M NIH grant to fight superbugs using AI, quantum sensing

drug defense

The fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA is getting science fiction-like upgrades at the University of Houston thanks to a new four-year, $1.26 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The university says the recent funding brings total federal support up to $3.5 million for 11 years for the project, which uses AI and quantum-sensing technology to better understand how bacterial proteins develop resistance to drugs.

Any medical professional will tell you that one of the worst things that can happen is almost killing an infection. Bacteria that survive attacks from conventional antibiotic treatments emerge tougher, more resistant and more aggressive than before–making them much harder to treat. A good example is the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

UH chemistry professors Yuhong Wang and Shoujun Xu are working on this issue. They know full well that fighting superbugs requires new technology and new approaches, which is what they aim to pioneer with their new grant.

“Drug-resistant bacterial infections such as MRSA are becoming harder to treat, creating an urgent need for faster ways to understand how antibiotics and other small molecules interact with bacterial proteins,” Wang said in a news release.

Wang and Xu’s work centers around GTP, a cellular fuel that can cause tiny changes to a cell's structure when it mutates. Sometimes, those shape changes make it easier for drugs to breach the wall and attack the cells.

The UH scientists are employing AlphaFold, an AI-powered tool that can scan large molecular libraries in seconds. From these models, they can see promising drug combinations for future testing.

Once identified, the team uses their invention, super-resolution force spectroscopy, to monitor the cells. Tiny magnetic beads are attached to genetic material, then magnified to see how strong that material is when pulled. They can measure this incredible microscopic process through an atomic magnetometer, typically used in quantum physics. Combined, all these tools allow a high-definition look at how each molecule might respond to new chemical approaches.

“We're the only chemists in the world that use an atomic magnetometer for biological research,” Xu said. “It's a technique developed by physicists, and there is usually a gap between techniques developed by physicists and biological applications. Yuhong and I have been bridging that gap together for the past 10 years.”

Eventually, Wang and Xu hope to develop powerful software that can be used by drug manufacturers to model cellular responses. With enough predictive data, the software could even get ahead of superbugs’ own mutation, allowing drugs to be developed before new strains arrive.

"We want an algorithm where you input a protein sequence, score the mutation hotspots, and develop new inhibitors before a drug-resistant species even emerges," Wang added.

SpaceX to get more than 700 acres of Texas wildlife refuge in land swap

Space News

A federal judge on Monday, September 21, refused to block the Trump administration from giving SpaceX more than 700 acres of wildlife refuge as part of a land swap in Texas, while environmental groups vowed to continue their legal challenge.

U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. declined the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the parcel exchange, saying they failed to prove it would worsen ecological risks to a Gulf Coast region already transformed by billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket operations.

In June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved moving forward with the deal with SpaceX, which would surrender 683 acres the company owns in exchange for the federal land in the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The 103,000-acre refuge spans four counties along the Texas border and is home to animal habitats and historical landmarks.

Maps show the land SpaceX would acquire would be closer to the company's launchpad near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The swap amounts to a gift of public lands to SpaceX, “clearing the way for bulldozers to tear into this wildlife refuge as soon as next week and turn a public treasure into a private payday,” said Laiken Jordahl, a spokesperson with the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the lawsuit alongside other opponents including tribal groups. Jordahl said Monday that the litigation will continue even as the exchange goes forward.

“This court order is not the final word. These lands hold incredible spiritual, historical and conservation value for the people and wildlife of South Texas. We won’t stop fighting to keep this irreplaceable public wildlife refuge safe from SpaceX bulldozers,” Jordahl said in a statement.

The lawsuit asks the federal court to halt the exchange, which has worried SpaceX opponents in the area who have long criticized the company's expanding footprint over lost access to beaches and concerns over exploding rockets.

The Fish and Wildlife Service didn’t respond to a request for comment on Monday’s decision. Previously, a spokesperson had said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.

The agency issued a final environmental assessment report in June that determined the exchange would cause no significant impact to the area. The report said the federal government believed the acquisition would represent a “net conservation benefit” and provide “substantial long-term conservation value and improving landscape-scale habitat connectivity across refuges in South Texas.”

The judge said that the plaintiffs offered “relatively weak” evidence of environmental harm.

“While they rightfully argue that the preservation of wildlife and historical lands furthers the public interest, they present no evidence demonstrating that the Property will suffer aesthetic, environmental, cultural, or historical degradation during the pendency of this lawsuit,” Rodriguez wrote in his ruling.

In addition, the judge said a preliminary injunction would result in modifications to SpaceX’s development plans, “placing additional hardship on the company’s ability to meet milestones and contractual obligations.”

SpaceX did not return an email seeking comment on the judge's ruling.

The space exploration company first broke ground in Texas more than a decade ago and has expanded rapidly, so much that SpaceX employees last year voted to incorporate their own local government called Starbase.

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