Vernon LaLone

Vernon LaLone is the founder and CEO of Wave Lumina, a chemical detection company based in Traverse City, Michigan, focused on rapid field testing for PFAS in water. Located near the shores of Lake Michigan, Wave Lumina is building tools intended to move PFAS screening out of slow, costly lab workflows and closer to the places where water is sampled. Its work targets the practical problems faced by utilities, regulators, consultants, and other water quality professionals who need more timely information about chemicals that can affect drinking and potable water systems.

On The Grove, LaLone traced the path that led him from science training to company building. He studied biochemistry at Michigan State University, began in immunology research, and later worked in the pharmaceutical industry, where he learned analytical chemistry, method development, and measurement across varied sample types. He earned a PhD in pharmaceutical science at the University of Michigan, working with Raman microscopy to measure tiny quantities of small molecule drugs inside immune cells and study drug bioaccumulation in tissues such as the lung and liver.

He also discussed an early lesson from that research: strong science does not automatically mean a real market. That experience helped shape Wave Lumina’s focus on a specific, urgent customer need: making water testing for PFAS faster, less labor intensive, and less prone to errors tied to complex sampling and laboratory processes. His appearance centered on translating deep analytical science into usable field instruments for safer water decisions.