Speakers panel

Chief Technology Officer and Senior VP of Research & Development (R&D) at Dow, leads an exceptional R&D organization focused on accelerating new product commercialization. Under Sreeram’s leadership, Dow transformed its innovation approach by growing high-throughput experimentation and analysis capabilities while establishing a strong connection to market signals and customers. Sreeram joined Dow in 2006 as VP of Core R&D and then served as VP of R&D for Advanced Materials. Prior to Dow, he held R&D leadership roles at DuPont, Cookson Electronics, and Sarnoff Corporation. Sreeram is a Henry F. Whalen Jr. Award recipient, holds 20 U.S. patents, and served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. He earned his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Amy Schumacher is the Chief Executive Officer of The Heritage Group, overseeing the company’s portfolio of more than 50 companies and 6,000 employees. She is also a member of its board of trustees. Amy has been part of The Heritage Group family of businesses since 2008, when she founded Monument Chemical — THG’s specialty chemicals business — and served as Monument’s President and CEO for eight years. In that role, she was responsible for growing Monument from a small, Indianapolis-based business into a global company with operations in Europe and the US. In 2016, Amy transitioned to President of The Heritage Group and was appointed CEO in 2020, marking the fourth generation of Fehsenfeld family leadership. She graduated from Purdue University with a B.A. in Education and B.S. in Civil Engineering and received her M.B.A. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She serves on the boards of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Calumet Specialty Products and the Purdue Engineering Advisory Council. Amy enjoys spending her free time with her husband, Jim, and her two daughters.

Scott N. Mitchell is President & CEO of Sumitomo Chemical America and Head of the Americas Region. With over 31 years in the agricultural and chemical industries, he has led major innovation, sustainability, and transformation efforts around the globe. Scott drives strategic initiatives that improve performance, compliance, and stakeholder engagement. He serves on Sumitomo’s global Sustainability Promotion Committee and is active in international sustainability networks. A frequent speaker and mentor, he maintains strong ties with Purdue University and volunteers as a local astronomy ambassador. He holds degrees in Agricultural Economics from Purdue and advanced credentials in HR and corporate governance.

Patricia Hubbard is SVP and Chief Technology Officer for Cabot Corporation, where she leads product, process and application technology development, focused on high-growth applications and industrial decarbonization. Patricia has a proven track record of leading innovation in multinational companies, connecting business strategy to technology strategy and resource deployment. Before Cabot, she held roles with Avery Dennison, Avient, General Electric and ICI.
Patricia holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University and a Ph.D. in Polymer Science from the University of Akron. She serves on the Board of Directors of Hexcel Corporation and the National Academies’ Chemical Sciences Roundtable.

Marty DeGroot is VP of Technology at DuPont leading the development and acceleration of innovative solutions in high performance industries such as healthcare, aerospace, electronics, automotive and many others. He has led R&D organizations for DuPont Industrial Solutions, Image Solutions and various Electronics businesses. He started his career with Dow, working as a leader and innovator in catalysis, solar and semiconductor fields. He is a co-winner of the ACS Heroes of Chemistry Award for leadership in product development in Chemical Mechanical Planarization. Marty holds a PhD in chemistry from Western and has more than 30 U.S. patents and 25 scientific publications. Marty is on the board of Junior Achievement of Delaware.

Dave Moss serves as Director of Technology and Innovation for Arkema’s ArrMaz division in Florida, where he leads global teams driving advancements in Crop Nutrition and Infrastructure. His work focuses on mineral processing, fertilizer coatings, and road science technologies. With 27 years in the surfactant industry, Dave has also held leadership positions with Evonik, Clariant, and Nouryon, combining technical leadership with business strategy. He has expertise across multiple applications and end-use markets, with a focus on innovation and portfolio development. Dave holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California-Davis and a B.S. in Chemistry from Indiana University.

Dr. Zara Summers is currently the Chief Science Officer at LanzaTech. She spent almost 10 years at ExxonMobil where she held a variety of scientific and leadership positions, all focused on helping to provide biological solutions for navigating the energy transition. Most recently, Zara worked to drive the development of a corporate research strategy on Nature Based Solutions and worked to understand the impacts of subsurface microorganisms on underground CO2 sequestration. Throughout her career, Zara has been most energized by working to identify solutions to enhance economic, environmental, and climate stability. At LanzaTech, Zara leads the passionate and innovative Science team, combining biology and engineering to tackle carbon transformation. The Science team works to provide solutions to address society’s challenge of mitigating climate change while providing the world the energy and products required to not only survive, but thrive.

Zara holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Massachusetts and completed her postdoctoral work at the University of Minnesota.

Guy Joly has worked in the industry for approximately 18 years. He began his career at 3M in the Corporate Research Materials Laboratory, developing materials for applications ranging from adhesives to dental composites. Guy has held a variety of technical and management positions within 3M and is a coinventor on more than 50 US patents. He was part of a collaborative team that received the 2020 ACS Cooperative Research Award in Polymer Science and Engineering for the development of new monomer technology that has been commercialized in composite dental restoratives. Guy is currently the Vice President and Technical Director of the 3M Corporate Research Materials Laboratory (CRML). The mission of the CRML is to develop material technologies that provide a sustainable competitive advantage for 3M’s businesses. The CRML has research focused on Adhesives & Release Materials Sciences, Films, Fibers & Coatings, Specialty Materials, Ceramics & Glasses and Physics & Optics. Within these focus areas, the CRML invents and develops differentiated materials, protects materials-related intellectual property, deploys materials technologies to the Business Groups, and supports the scale-up and commercialisation of new materials within 3 M. Guy received a B.A. in Chemistry from Hamline University and was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Harvard University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry working in the laboratory of Professor Eric N. Jacobsen. Before joining 3M, Guy spent two years as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT in the laboratory of Professor Timothy M. Swager.

Zeru Tekie joined Hexion in 2023 as the Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. He leads Hexion’s science and technology innovation portfolio, technical services capabilities and continuous improvement initiatives with an emphasis on operational excellence and sustainability. Before joining Hexion, he served as Vice President of Technology, Advanced Performance Materials for Chemours and Corporate R&D Director for 3M. With more than 25 years of experience in the chemical industry, Tekie has a strong track record of delivering business value through technology innovation, asset optimization, cost productivity, capital effectiveness and continuous improvement programs.
Tekie holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

As Global Vice President at Schneider Electric, Dr. Thomas Alan Kwan leads strategic innovation in next-generation energy systems and advanced manufacturing. He blends technical expertise with market insight to deliver actionable strategies through Schneider’s Sustainability Research Institute. In this role, Dr. Kwan also advises governments on supporting industrial growth and decarbonization through technology and policy development. He serves as Topic Editor for Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research and authors the monthly “Energy Savers” column in Chemical Processing magazine, where he shares practical strategies and solutions to help industry professionals navigate the evolving energy landscape.

Sibel Selcuk is the Executive Vice President of Research & Development for The Heritage Group. She previously served as VP, Global R&D and Strategy for Monument Chemical, and is also President of Heritage Turkish Holdings. Sibel served in leadership roles at the American Chemical Society, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Interaktif Cevre, is a member of the US-Turkiye Business Council and Dean’s Advisory Board for the School of Science at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis. She earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Middle East Technical University and a Ph.D. in Macromolecular Science and Chemistry from Louisiana State University.

Frederik leads Elsevier's Professional Services Group for Corporate R&D, which is a global team of consultants, project managers and technical specialists. The Professional Services team work on data integration and analytics projects throughout the life science, chemistry and engineering domains using commercial, proprietary, and public data sources. Before joining Elsevier in late 2014, Frederik van den Broek spent 10 years in R&D IT consultancy at Tessella, working for R&D organisations of multinational companies in a variety of industries: life sciences, consumer products, energy, chemical and petrochemical and hydraulic engineering. He has a broad international experience and a deep understanding of science and technology. Frederik holds a doctorate in Chemical Physics from the University of Amsterdam / FOM Institute AMOLF and a master’s degree in Chemistry from Utrecht University.

Jean Vincent is the Head of Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) for Evonik in the Americas region.  She is located at Evonik’s core R&D site in Allentown, PA, supporting the business line R&D, open innovation, and partnerships.  Prior to this role, Jean held positions in innovation management, commercial leadership and new product development, for both Evonik (since 2017) and Air Products (1990-2016).  Areas of professional interest for Jean include carbon capture, circular plastics, inorganic chemistry, catalysis, and innovations for improving product sustainability.  Jean holds a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Missouri, completed a fellowship at Los Alamos National Laboratories, and is the author on more than 50 patents or publications.

Prior to joining ACS Albert Horvath served as the Chief Operating Officer and Under Secretary for Finance and Administration at the Smithsonian Institution. In that role, he was responsible for financial, business, and administrative activities of the largest museum, research and educational complex in the world. Prior to joining the Smithsonian, Mr. Horvath spent more than two decades working in administration for some of the leading research universities in the country including Penn State, Columbia University, California Institute of Technology, New York University, and Carnegie Mellon University. He began his career at Mellon Bank in his hometown of Pittsburgh before moving into higher education. A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Horvath earned his master's degree in accounting at Penn State.

Will Tashman is the co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Uncountable, a pioneering software platform that revolutionizes R&D lifecycle management through advanced technologies like AI, machine learning, and Design of Experiments (DOE). With a degree in Materials Engineering from MIT and previous engineering roles at Apple, Will brings over a decade of expertise in materials informatics and enterprise technology. At Uncountable, he spearheads strategic business development and customer success, driving solutions that support hundreds of clients and thousands of users across industries such as advanced materials, specialty chemicals, and coatings technologies. Will’s leadership has been instrumental in scaling Uncountable’s global presence, empowering R&D organizations to harness the full potential of their material informatics vision through scalable, cutting-edge technology. Passionate about innovation, Will is shaping the future of laboratory technology and material science through his work at Uncountable, where he continues to drive industry-wide transformation.

Sarves is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of progressive leadership experience in the chemical industry, currently heading Renewables & Fuels business at Monument Chemical. Sarves’ career spans business performance management, innovation leadership, operational excellence, supply chain optimization and successful business turnarounds. Prior to his current role, Sarves successfully led transformational growth at Monument’s Solvents business. Before joining Monument, he served in various leadership roles at National Starch, a division of Unilever, ICI and Akzo, where he built and transformed supply chain operations into a strategic growth enabler.
Sarves earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the State University of New York and MBA in Finance and Operations from NYU Stern.

Peter Lux serves as President of Envita Solutions, a leading total waste management partner. Over the past two decades, Envita Solutions has helped over 275 facilities reach zero-waste-to-landfill certification across North America. They design innovative waste and recycling programs that deliver cost savings and convenience through a centralized program, supported by data analytics to guide future decisions.
Peter serves as a board director for ClimeCo, a global sustainability company advancing the low-carbon future with market-based solutions. He is also a member of the World 50 Group.

Karen Totland has spent her entire career in the chemical industry, most recently as Chief Sustainability Officer of FMC Corporation, a Fortune 500 company. Karen also has strong operational expertise and strategic business leadership, having built and led Global Procurement functions with multi-billion dollar annual spends. With a passion for global supply chain procurement and sustainability, she focused on strengthening sources of supply from quality vendors to deliver improved sustainability and economics. Karen holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Ottawa and conducted post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jeff Carbeck is Vice President, Corporate Innovation and Care Solutions Technology for Eastman Chemical Company.
In this role, Dr. Carbeck leads an Eastman team that advances the company’s sustainable products and materials portfolio by focusing on front-end innovation, top innovation growth platforms, and emerging markets and technologies. He also specifically focuses on technology development and support for Eastmans Care Chemicals, Agricultural Chemicals, Functional Amines and Specialty Fluids Businesses, including Eastman’s Heat Transfer Fluids and Aviations Fluids businesses.
Carbeck is a native of Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Science and Engineering from The University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from MIT, both degrees in Materials Science. He spent two years as a post-doc in the Chemistry Department at Harvard.

As the Director of Process and Chemical Engineering R&D at BASF Corporation, Amit Gokhale leads the group responsible for process improvement, energy efficiency, and sustainability initiatives for BASF’s North American assets. Amit started his industrial career in 2005, initially at BP in roles that spanned Research and Operations with focus on Petrochemicals, Biofuels, and Renewable materials. In 2016, Amit joined BASF Corporation leading the technology efforts for their Catalyst Business and subsequently assumed his current role in BASF’s Corporate R&D in 2019. Amit holds more than 20 US patents, and over the years has led the commercialization of several technologies many of them through the development of partnerships.

Amit holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and an MBA from the University of California – Berkeley.

Peter joined PPG in 2005, following a two-year tenure as a materials researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Throughout his tenure at PPG, he has held various technical and technical management roles, providing support to six different businesses. Peter is deeply committed to harnessing innovation as a driving force for organic growth. Over the course of his career, he has examined innovation challenges and spearheaded teams that delivered superior solutions across multiple markets served by PPG.

From 2018 to 2022, Peter led the research and product development activities supporting PPG’s Mobility initiatives in addition to the automotive and industrial segments.  Since mid-2022, he has led the global technical activities for PPG's Architectural and Traffic Solutions business units.  Peter earned his B.S. from Michigan State University, an M.S. from the University of Maryland, and holds both a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering and a Kellogg School of Management Executive Scholar Certificate from Northwestern University. Beyond his professional achievements, Peter serves as the board chair for the Sarah Heinz House and contributes as an industrial advisory member to Arizona State University’s Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing Center and Michigan State University’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

William H. Green is a world leader in chemical kinetics, reaction engineering, prediction of chemical reactions and properties, and in development of related software. He has led many combined experimental/modeling research projects related to fuels, combustion, pyrolysis, and oxidative stability. He developed computer methods to predict the behavior of complicated reacting mixtures, many of which are included in the open source Reaction Mechanism Generator software package, an AI expert system for reactive chemistry, and the associated popular website rmg.mit.edu. His group has also developed machine-learning methods and software for chemistry including Chemprop, currently the most popular open-source chemistry software on GitHub. He has published more than 360 journal papers, and his work has been cited more than 26,000 times. Green also invents and analyzes technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Two of his greenhouse-gas emission-reduction inventions are now being commercialized, one by Thiozen, a company he co-founded. Green earned his B.A. at Swarthmore College, and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. After postdocs at Cambridge University and University of Pennsylvania, he worked in industry for six years before joining the Chemical Engineering faculty at MIT in 1997. He is a Fellow of the AAAS and of the Combustion Institute, and has received the American Chemical Society’s Glenn Award in Energy & Fuel Chemistry and the AIChE’s Wilhelm Award in Reaction Engineering. He is now Director of the MIT Energy Initiative. He previously served as the Editor of the International Journal of Chemical Kinetics, and as Executive Officer of the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering.

Craig Kasberg is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tidal Vision, the global leader in advanced biomolecular solutions based on chitosan for critical industries such as water agriculture, and industrial biomaterials. Under Craig’s leadership, Tidal Vision has scaled rapidly by delivering higher performing and more economical solutions at scale. Tidal Vision now has over 300 employees, multiple commercial scale production facilities in operation, and over 800 customers across their 3 verticals. The company’s core technologies are vertically integrated from raw material processing, biomolecular engineering and modification, and turn-key formulation for specific applications.

Douglas Friedman is CEO of BioMADE. In founding BioMADE, Doug seeks to secure the growth of the U.S. industrial biomanufacturing ecosystem and advance the non-health bioeconomy. He is a subject matter expert on emerging biotechnologies, bioindustrial manufacturing, biotechnology policy, biosecurity, and related national security topics as drivers of economic growth and national security. In addition to his leadership of BioMADE, he is Vice Chair of the U.S. Manufacturing Innovation Council and a member of the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry & Security Materials and Equipment Technical Advisory Committee. He previously served as a consultant (special government employee) at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy. Prior to BioMADE, Doug was the founding Executive Director and President of Engineering Biology Research Consortium (EBRC). Earlier in his career, he was a study director at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, DC. Doug has performed research in physical organic chemistry and chemical biology in academia and industry. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University, Certificate in Management for Scientists & Engineers from the Kellogg School of Management, and a B.S. in Chemical Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Andrea Jacobs is Director of Data Analytics at CAS, a division of the ACS specializing in scientific knowledge management. In her current role, Andrea leads a team of data scientists, many of whom also have an educational background in a natural science discipline such as chemistry, biology, and pharmacology, tasked with pioneering science-smart AI solutions to accelerate R&D workflows. In her 15-year tenure with CAS, she has held scientific, technical, and business leadership roles spanning the organization’s end-to-end operations, including enterprise strategy, product development, partnerships, content licensing, and data curation operations and infrastructure. Andrea earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry and computer science from Wellesley College and an MBA from The Ohio State University.

Nick Talken is the CEO and co-founder of Albert Invent. A chemical engineer with multiple patents and publications, Nick previously co-founded and served as CTO of Molecule, a leading 3D printing materials company, where he built the first version of Albert to help his own lab team. He later led the digital transformation of R&D at Henkel, the global leader in adhesives, sealants, and functional coatings. At Albert Invent, Nick now brings over a decade of technology innovation to empower every chemist with AI-driven insights.

Melanie Tomczak is BioMADE’s Head of Programs & Chief Technology Officer. Melanie excels at building diverse technical teams to tackle complicated projects and achieve program goals. Her scientific expertise is in co-opting what nature does well using biotechnology. In her current role, she guides the technical direction of the 340+ member BioMADE ecosystem and works with our Education and Workforce Development, Data and Safety & Security Teams to define advanced development programs for BioMADE support. Under her umbrella, there are currently 70+ active projects representing more than 60 member organizations and $170M+ in total funding. Melanie engages with members and government stakeholders to drive the institute forward towards the goal of commercializing products made using bioindustrial manufacturing. Previously, Dr. Tomczak was Director of Biological and Nanoscale Technologies at UES where she was repeatedly awarded competitive Air Force Research Laboratory on-site contracts and held 15+ Small Business Innovation Research grants from agencies including NIH, NSF, USDA, EPA, AF, DTRA, DARPA and Army. Dr. Tomczak received a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Davis, both in Plant Biology.

Ryan joined Syensqo (then Solvay) in 2009 as a researcher in the Complex Assembly of Soft Matter (COMPASS) Lab within Solvay’s Corporate R&I division in 2009, where he focused on understanding fundamental aspects of soft matter systems, conducting polymer, nanoparticle, and surfactant formulations through various characterization methodologies.  In 2015, he became the Solvay R&I External Affairs Coordinator for North American, where he facilitated external technical collaborations for Solvay’s research programs, maintained relationships with current or potential collaborators, and sought potential external funding for these projects.  In February 2016, Ryan moved from Corporate to Solvay Specialty Polymers as the Technology Manager for Solvay Dental 360, where he was responsible for leading the technical strategy, directing product pipeline development and managing external relationships critical to the successful execution of the business.  Since January 2019, Ryan has had the role of Technology Manager of the Materials Physics and Machine Learning group in Specialty Polymers, where he built a team to focus on unraveling the property-to-structure mechanisms of materials salient to various applications, with a special emphasis on utilizing in-silico tools for these investigations. Ryan received his Ph.D. in 2007 from the Polymer Science and Engineering (PSE) department, under Prof. Muthukumar at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he studied synthetic polyelectrolyte dynamics and nanopore translocation phenomenon.  From 2007-2009, Ryan conducted a National Research Council (NCR) postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Polymers Division, focused on diffusion, adsorption, and aggregation phenomenon of polyelectrolytes and charged nanoparticles. 

Maryalice Belluscio leads Global Technical Service and Applications function for Nouryon’s Personal Care business, overseeing teams in Bridgewater, USA and Stenungsund, Sweden. In her role, she serves as the central technical contact and strategic coordinator across Nouryon’s global network of Personal Care laboratories, driving innovation, customer collaboration, and technical excellence.

Maryalice began her career at L’Oréal before joining National Starch and Chemical in 2001—a company that evolved through AkzoNobel into what is now Nouryon. Her career spans the full spectrum of R&D, including new product development, polymer and biopolymer innovation, and technical support for manufacturing operations worldwide.

Maryalice’s formulation expertise covers aerosol science, skin care, sun care, hair styling, and hair care. Her work has enabled customers to overcome complex formulation challenges and bring differentiated, high-performance products to market. She is recognized for her ability to translate scientific insight into practical solutions that meet evolving consumer and industry needs.

Ms. Belluscio holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Mathematics, and a Master’s degree in Cosmetic Chemistry from Fairleigh Dickinson University.