Forum Speakers
Arthur Andrews is a Principal Data Scientist at DuPont. DuPont is a leading multi-industrial company producing specialty materials for the electronics, construction, water purification, and personal protection markets. His professional interest is applying data science, chemical engineering, and software development principles to solve problems in the chemical industry. Arthur earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 2000 and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University in 2005.
Dr. Cynthia Arnold has had a 40 year career leading product development and innovation strategy to commercialize a wide range of products, improved processes and services throughout her career as the CTO of Valspar and Sun Chemical and in leadership technology roles. She now serves as a board member of both public and private firms in the materials, software and energy sectors. She served as a Sloan Executive Fellow in the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy for several years and on the University of Minnesota’s CEMS External Advisory Board. Cynthia holds a bachelors degree in chemical engineering and MBA from the University of California at Berkeley, and a PhD in materials science & engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University.
Deep Bhattacharya is currently Vice President of Plastics Technology and Technology at Eastman. He has been with Eastman for 21 years and has had several positions in the technology and marketing organizations. Prior to his current role, Deep was Vice President, Care Solutions Technology.
Deep has Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from India and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Polymer Science from the State University of New York. He recently completed the Executive Scholars Program in General Management from Northwestern University. He has five U.S. patents and several publications in peer reviewed journals. Deep currently is on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Coatings Technology and Research, Scientific and Technical Committee of the American Coatings Association and is also a Committee Member for the Tess Award which is organized by the American Chemical Society - Division of Polymer Science and Engineering.
Andrea Browning, Director for Polymers and Soft Matter, is responsible for leading efforts related to polymeric materials simulation and other soft matter such as micelles and surfactants. She brings over a decade of experience in connecting product pain points to root materials issues and how simulations can be used to inform industrial decisions. She was a NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara and received her Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from that institution.
Kim Chaffin is a Vice President and Corporate Technologist, Medtronic Fellow, Bakken Fellow and Technical Fellow in Global Technology and Innovation group at Medtronic, Inc. Kim is a recognized expert in material thermodynamics and characterization, especially as it relates to structure-property relationships that govern long-term stability and performance. Kim holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. She is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Minnesota.
Albert Goldfain is Director of Data Science for Ecolab's Center for Advanced Analytics. He has a technical background in AI, data science, machine learning, with special focus on machine vision, natural language processing, wearable computing, IoT analytics and smart sensing. Albert's "anchor" team is responsible for platforming innovative technologies while partnering closely with R&D and business stakeholders to deliver value for customers and maximize impact for our field teams through the delivery of data-centric solutions.
Barbara Humpton is President and CEO of Siemens Corporation, where she guides the company’s strategy and engagement in serving the company’s largest market. She views the true purpose of technology as expanding what’s humanly possible. Most recently, Humpton served as president and CEO of Siemens Government Technologies, Inc. (SGT), a leading integrator of Siemens’ products and services for federal government agencies and departments. In this role, Humpton also served as an officer/director member of the board of directors of SGT.
Prior to joining Siemens in 2011, Humpton served as a vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. Earlier, Humpton was a vice president at Lockheed Martin Corporation. Humpton is a graduate of Wake Forest University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Barbara is Chairman of the Siemens Corporation Board, the Siemens Foundation and of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA).
Surya Iyer is President and Board Member at Polar Semiconductor, a semiconductor wafer manufacturing facility in Bloomington, MN. Prior to Polar, Surya held senior management and engineering positions at Cypress Semiconductor Corp. in Bloomington, MN and Applied Materials, Inc. in Santa Clara, CA. At Cypress, Surya worked on process development and integration for advanced 65nm transistors and non-volatile memory devices. Surya managed key customer business development and joint technology programs, engineering design, and process development at Applied.
Surya is an alumnus of Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, where he attended the Advanced Management Program. Surya was a post-doctoral fellow at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, where he conducted research on reliability of materials such as MEMS, thin films in electronic devices, and biomedical materials. Surya's graduate research was on nanocrystalline materials and advanced composites used in aircraft engines. He has 20 patents related to semiconductor processing and equipment design and over 25 peer-reviewed publications.
Alison Main is a Research and Development Vice President for Corporate Functions R&D at Procter & Gamble. She has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford in the UK and 30 years’ experience at P&G. During her career Alison has delivered product and process innovation for Laundry and Automatic Dishwashing Detergents, Downy fabric softeners, Bounty, Charmin and Puffs paper goods, Duracell batteries and a variety of health care products.
She has a passion for transforming the way we work and has been a strong advocate for wide-spread use of modeling & simulation and data science to accelerate innovation. She is also passionate about people development and creating winning organization culture and has led multiple interventions in career development, equality and inclusion and leadership culture.
Gillian Morris joined KPMG in 2019 after management consulting careers with Roland Berger LLC and Kline & Company, and an industry career at Sun Chemical in inks and coatings. Over the last 25+ years, she has developed extensive experience leading corporate and business-unit strategy, performance improvement, and commercial due diligence engagements in the specialty chemicals and materials space for private equity, family offices, and corporate clients. She currently leads KPMG’s US chemicals and materials industry and commercial diligence practices.
Gregory Mulholland is the founder and CEO of Citrine Informatics, the Generative AI platform enabling the faster development and deployment of the next generation of materials and chemicals. He is an internationally recognized leader in both materials technology and digital transformation and has led Citrine to work with some of the world’s largest and most important materials and chemicals companies to create greener, less expensive, and more performant products. He has been honored as a Technology Pioneer at the World Economic Forum, won the Start Up and Scale Up challenges at the World Materials Forum, and been awarded over a dozen other start-up and business awards.
Nasir Mohammed is a leader known for his contributions to AI and autonomy, digital transformation, software development, technology strategy, and innovation management. Throughout his career at Honeywell, he has held several key positions, currently serving as a Senior Fellow in Aerospace Technology.
Nasir is leading AI strategy and initiatives across the US, India, the Czech Republic, and China. His leadership has been crucial in advancing Reduced Crew and Single Pilot operations towards full autonomy, earning the team a Technology Achievement Award for their innovative efforts in detecting pilot sleep and drowsiness, thereby enhancing safety and efficiency in aerospace.
Nasir previously served as Senior Director of RD&E Transformation at Honeywell Corporate, where he led the digital transformation of R&D.
Hergen Schultze did his PhD in Physics on “simple models for complex bio-membranes”. After that he joined BASF Group Research and worked on various methods of model-based experimental design and their application in materials & catalyst development as well as process optimization. He is currently heading the BASF center of expertise for “Data Analytics” which includes Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. The group is actively collaborating with academia and in open source projects for method development on the one side and is providing digital solutions to BASF customers on the other.
Mary Shelman is an internationally recognized thought leader, strategist, author, and speaker on global agribusiness, AgTech, and food system trends. The former Director of Harvard Business School’s Agribusiness Program, she now works with companies, governments, and investors around the world through her consulting and advisory firm, Shelman Group, based in Boston, Massachusetts. Shelman provides unique insights into how technology, sustainability, and engaged and empowered consumers are transforming the agribusiness supply chain from farm to fork. She champions collaboration, industry alignment, and forward-looking strategic planning to achieve system-wide improvements and create pathways for sustainable growth. A native of Kentucky where she still owns a 475-acre farm, Mary holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
David Smart is EVP, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Information Officer at Milliken. In his current role, David leads finance, accounting, tax, treasury, information technology, and Milliken’s digital transformation. David joined the Company in 2019. Prior to joining Milliken, David served as Senior Vice President and CFO of Pella Corporation. There, David was a member of the Board of Directors and had responsibility for strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, finance, accounting, internal audit, tax, treasury, legal, information technology, customer service, and business insights. David also had operational responsibilities for two business units and served for three years as the Chief Information Officer. Prior to his role with Pella Corporation, David spent 20 years with Ford Motor Company in senior finance leadership roles that included assignments in both the United Kingdom and Australia. David holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in Finance, Business Economics, and Public Policy from Indiana University.
Zack Ulissi is a research scientist on the FAIR Chemistry team in Meta’s Fundamental AI Research lab and an Adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. He has led several open science projects and community efforts, the most notable of which is the Open Catalyst Project (https://opencatalystproject.org/ ). Prior to Meta, he was an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering. He completed his undergraduate work at the University of Delaware, M.A.St. at Cambridge, PhD at MIT on carbon nanotube devices with Michael Strano and Richard Braatz, and post-doc in catalysis at Stanford with Jens Nørskov.
Ken Washington serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Medtronic. In this role, Ken is responsible for accelerating Medtronic innovation through product development and technology strategies. Ken joined Medtronic in 2023 and brought with him deep expertise in leading technology development and execution across industries including robotics, consumer products, automotive, and space. Prior to joining Medtronic, Ken was Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Robotics at Amazon and before that was Chief Technology Officer at Ford Motor Company, overseeing development of the company’s technology strategy. He spent seven years at Lockheed Martin in various leadership roles including Chief Technology Officer.
Ken earned a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science, and a PhD in nuclear engineering from Texas A&M University. He was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2020 and was inducted into the Black Engineer Hall of Fame in 2023.