Who is Brian Iezzi?
Brian leads the development of Fibarcode, a fiber-based textile labeling technology that allows for durable authentication, traceability, and end-of-use sortation across the entire apparel product life cycle while mitigating recycling disruption. He has over 10 years of experience in textile manufacturing and materials R&D, including fabric durability assessment at W.L. Gore & Associates (makers of Gore-Tex) and developing novel biodegradable synthetic yarn additives at Parkdale Mills, Inc. He received his B.S. in Textile Engineering from NC State University and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan, where he led the invention of the Fibarcode technology during a National Science Foundation-funded internship with the Defense Fabric Discovery Center at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Fibarcode has received support from the Innovation Crossroads program at Oak Ridge National Lab, LaunchTN (SBIR/STTR Matching Program), and the Textile Innovation Engine in partnership with the Center for Renewable Carbon at UT-Knoxville.
Connect with Brian Iezzi on LinkedIn.
What is Fibarcode?
Many of the colors we see in nature, such as butterfly wings and opals, are not the result of portions of the visible spectrum being absorbed by pigmentation or dyes, but rather the result of light being reflected and refracted due to structural arrangements of micro/nanoscale matter.
Our technology leverages these naturally inspired material structures through a novel breakthrough in utilizing polymers to engineer photonic structures directly into textile fibers through a scalable manufacturing process.
Fibarcode’s technology emerged from joint research at the University of Michigan and MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Defense Fabric Discovery Center. Backed by the U.S. Department of Energy (via Oak Ridge National Lab), Michigan’s Great Lakes environmental initiative, and NC State’s textile engineering program, we’ve been advancing fabric-based identification since our 2024 launch. Today, our Knoxville-based team is led by Dr. Brian Iezzi, the University of Michigan PhD researcher who co-invented this innovation, delivering a novel circular tracking solution through patent-pending fabric-embedded data to the textile industry.
