Company Profile

Access Sensor Technologies LLC is focused on development of simple, fast and low-cost products for sampling and evaluation for chemical pollutants in air, water, food and soil - including read-by-eye and electrochemical paper-based analytical device (PAD) assays, portable electrochemical sample analyzers and wearable personal aerosol samplers. With much of Access Sensor Technologies LLC efforts anchored in licensed patents from Colorado State University, areas of primary interest and focus include Water Testing, Environmental Diagnostics, Air Testing, Water Quality, Air Quality, Environmental Diagnostics, Product Development, Research, Engineering, Chemistry, Environmental Health, Epidemiological Studies, Food Safety, and Pathogen Detection. AST’s environmental sampling products shed light on pollutant exposure in air and water in a format that simplifies the work flow of our customers. The Ultrasonic Personal Air Sample (UPAS) has been used in a CSU research study analyzing the air pollution and resultant health outcomes of cookstove use in rural Honduras. Additionally, the On-Target Water Testing Kits have been used extensively in Colorado to measure particulate content in stream and tap water, as well as in Peru to analyze cooking, drinking, and cleaning water for villages. How an Idea Became a Company Founder John Volckens shares his memories on the origin of AST: “[Chuck and I] quickly discovered that our research collaborations were leading to ideas and inventions that could probably find a home on the commercial marketplace. Chuck, having done this before, convinced me (over a period of more than a year) that it would be a good idea for us to start a company together. I was hesitant at first, because I didn’t want a second job, but I did have a very talented Masters student, Dan Miller-Lionberg, who was finishing up. I knew that if we could get him involved, he would be the brawn of the company at the early stage while Chuck and I wrote grants to fund the company. Our first sales were through academic contacts. I would present my research at academic conferences and people would come up afterwards and say ‘How do I get this technology? I want to use it.’ I would let them borrow some of the prototypes we had, but quickly it became clear that we needed a way to get more product made. That’s also why I agreed to start the company with Chuck. Eventually, we had a couple people come to us and say ‘we’ve got a big project, we need 200 of these’ and so I sent them to buy 200 from the company. The company probably wasn’t ready to sell 200 at that time, but they couldn’t refuse that kind of offer. So, I made some introductions between the company and colleagues who wanted the technology – then I got out of the way.”