About NovaVera
NovaVera embeds covert, machine-readable authentication into the materials products are made from: on the historic RCA / Sarnoff campus in Princeton, with the scientists who grow the crystals down the hall.
Our mission
NovaVera gives governments and brands best-in-class covert security for authentication and anti-counterfeit protection. We engineer materials at the molecular level to create authentication that cannot be replicated.
Our technology is trusted by some of the world's most demanding institutions, from central banks to pharmaceutical companies safeguarding patient health.
Company
NovaVera Corp. makes and sells Intelligent Material® under exclusive license from Intelligent Material Solutions (IMS), on the historic RCA / Sarnoff campus in Princeton, New Jersey. Its liquid-state crystal synthesis produces uniform sub-micron crystals: one phase, one size, one shape, every batch.
We serve central banks, pharmaceutical manufacturers and brand owners, under an ISO 9001 certified quality system.
IMS and NovaVera invent together. IMS owns the patents and licenses them; NovaVera makes and sells.
Visit Intelligent Material Solutions ↗People
Three decades of nanocrystal science, one line of training, and a team that turns it into programs that ship.
Princeton University · Columbia Business School MBA · management consulting
John co-founded NovaVera to take Intelligent Material® out of the lab and into the products, documents and supply chains that need it. He leads the company’s strategy, partnerships and growth, and works directly with the brand owners, manufacturers and institutions who adopt it.
Richard Perry University Professor of Chemistry and of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
First author of the 1993 quantum-dot paper that the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized: the first reliable way to grow nanocrystals of one size. Three decades of foundational work on colloidal nanocrystals since.
Twenty years of Friday calls with Dr. Murray: an hour on the phone every week, from the first uniform crystals to the Intelligent Material® platform
Author of many papers on nanocrystals, upconversion and optical sensing. Directs crystal design, crystallography and spectroscopy, and the detection systems that read them.
PhD in inorganic chemistry and nanoscience, Duke University. Over 20 years in nanomaterials and crystallography, directing the materials research behind the platform.
Runs the quality system, processes and operations behind every client program and manufacturing run. Your first reply usually comes from her.
Works with clients across our priority industries to scope, pilot and launch deployment programs.
Science & research
Phosphors have been developed for more than a century. The breakthrough behind Intelligent Material® is a liquid-state nanocrystal synthesis that grows uniform sub-micron crystals: one phase, one size, one shape, every batch. That uniformity gives narrow optical signatures, precise quantification from ppm to ppt, and multiplexed signals that conventional phosphors and surface coatings cannot copy.
Synthesis and characterization of nearly monodisperse CdE (E = S, Se, Te) semiconductor nanocrystallites.
Dr. Christopher B. Murray was first author of the paper describing a controlled way to grow nanocrystals of one size. The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots, and the Nobel background points to this 1993 advance.
Dr. Murray is an inventor on the IMS / Penn patent family for morphologically and size-uniform particles. The same lesson, precise control of composition, size and architecture for precise control of behavior, is what makes each Intelligent Material recipe answer the reader the same way, every batch.
History
Princeton's RCA Laboratories, now the Sarnoff campus where IMS and NovaVera work, has been inventing the materials of security for seven decades.
The ultraviolet-to-red luminescent material in the security stripe of the U.S. $100 note is invented at RCA Laboratories in Princeton.
The two-photon upconverter, infrared light in and visible light out, an effect Intelligent Material still uses, is pioneered here by Neil Yocom and his RCA colleagues.
Intelligent Material Solutions and the University of Pennsylvania develop and patent size- and shape-uniform rare-earth crystals.
IMS receives NJMEP's Innovator of the Year award at the Made in New Jersey Manufacturing Day.
Billions of G7 banknotes, 3 billion surgical-supply units and 5 million tons of fiber carry the material.
NovaVera Corp. makes and sells Intelligent Material® under exclusive license, with the readers, software and programs built on it.
NovaVera's sister company, Intelligent Material Solutions, Inc., received the Innovator of the Year award from the New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program in October 2022. NJMEP is a non-profit backed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); the award was presented at its annual Made in New Jersey Manufacturing Day.
NovaVera runs an ISO 9001 certified quality management system for every client program and manufacturing deployment. Safety and technical data sheets are available under NDA.
Request data sheetsNovaVera works with central banks, pharmaceutical manufacturers, brand owners and more, from the first sample to full production. Tell us what you need to protect. We reply within two business days.