After growing up in Socorro, New Mexico, Bhappu got degrees in metallurgical engineering at the University of Arizona, and a PhD in mineral economics from the ColoradoSchoolofMines.
Founded in 2001 by two graduate students from the ColoradoSchoolofMines, Oberon aims to address the fish-feed problem by serving farmed fish the bacteria used to eat up the excess food in wastewater streams of food-processing plants.