BCST Board Members
Co-Chairs
Pablo G. Debenedetti, NAE, NAS, Princeton University
Timothy Swager, NAS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Members
David Bem, The Dow Chemical Company
Joan Brennecke, NAE, Notre Dame University
Robert Bergman, NAS, University of California, Berkeley
Henry E. Bryndza, E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company
David Christianson, University of Pennsylvania
Richard Eisenberg, NAS, University of Rochester
Mary Jane Hagenson, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LLC (retired)
Carol J. Henry, Independent Consultant
Jill Hruby, Sandia National Laboratories
Michael C. Kerby, ExxonMobil Chemical Company
Charles E. Kolb, Aerodyne Research, Inc
Sander G. Mills, Merck, Sharp, & Dohme Corporation
David Morse, NAE, Corning Incorporated
Robert E. Roberts, Institute for Defense Analyses
Darlene J.S. Solomon, Agilent Technologies
Jean Tom, Bristol-Myers Squibb
David Walt, NAE, Tufts University
Board Members Biographies
Dr. David Bem
Dr. David Bem is the Global Research and Development director at The Dow Chemical Company. He started his industrial career in 1995 at UOP LLC, a Honeywell company, where he worked on heterogeneous catalysis, high throughput screening tools and novel micro-porous materials. He joined Celanese chemicals in 2002, and was appointed the R&D global director for the Ticona Plastics Business in 2005. He was also a member of the corporate executive team from 2005 to 2007. He moved to Dow in 2007 and quickly rose through the ranks as a technical leader, and was appointed global R&D director, for Dow Automotive in 2008, before being appointed as the global R&D director for Dow's Core R&D organization in 2010. Dr. David Bem holds 9 patents, and has authored numerous journal publications. He received his PhD in solid state chemistry from MIT, where he worked on his thesis “Synthesis and Characterization of Ternary Nitrides” under Dr. Hanno Zur Loye and obtained his bachelor's degree in Chemistry from West Virginia University.
Dr. Joan Brennecke
Joan F. Brennecke's research is primarily focused on experimental aspects of thermodynamics and separations, with particular interest in supercritical fluids and ionic liquids. Her research group's energy research involves improvements in energy efficiency and CO2 capture. They are developing ionic liquids, which are nonvolatile low-melting (e.g., liquid at room temperature) salts, for more energy efficient selective gas separations. This would involve gas absorption into a liquid instead of cryogenic distillation for olefin/paraffin separation, for example. In collaboration with other researchers in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, as well as in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, they are also developing ionic liquid systems for more energy efficient absorption refrigeration. Finally, working with Professor Ed Maginn, her group has developed, synthesized and tested ionic liquids for removal of CO2 from flue gas. She teaches a course entitled "Energy and Climate Change."
Dr. Robert Bergman
Robert Bergman received his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in l966 under the direction of Jerome A. Berson. He spent l966-67 as a postdoctoral fellow in Ronald Breslow's laboratories at Columbia, and following that joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology. After ten years at Caltech he accepted a Professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, and a joint appointment at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; in 2002 he was appointed Gerald E.K. Branch Distinguished Professor at Berkeley. Among his honors are a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, a Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award, the American Chemical Society Award in Organometallic Chemistry, election to membership in the U. S. National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U. S. Department of Energy E.O. Lawrence Award in Chemistry and the American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Award, and the Royal Society of Chemistry Sir Edward Frankland Prize Lectureship. Bergman has long been interested in exploratory and mechanistic studies in organic and organotransition metal chemistry. He is probably best known for his discovery of the thermal cyclization of cis-1,5-hexadiyne-3-enes to l,4-dehydrobenzene diradicals, a transformation that has been identified as a crucial DNA-cleaving reaction in several antibiotics that bind to nucleic acids, his discovery of the first soluble organometallic complexes that undergo intermolecular insertion of transition metals into the carbon-hydrogen bonds of alkanes, and his work on the synthesis and cycloaddition reactions of complexes with metal-heteroatom multiple bonds. His research has recently expanded to include application of carbon-hydrogen bond activation to problems in synthetic organic chemistry, nanovessel catalysis, and methods for the conversion of biomass to fuels and commodity chemicals.
Dr. Henry E. Bryndza
Henry E. Bryndza is the technology director for chemical sciences and engineering in DuPont Central Research and Development. Dr. Bryndza joined DuPont in 1981 and has held a variety of technology, planning, marketing, and business roles. He received his S.B. in chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he conducted research in physical and synthetic organic chemistry with C. G. Swain and D. S. Kemp. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where he did his thesis research on physical organometallic chemistry and catalysis with R. G. Bergman.
Dr. David Christianson
David W. Christianson is the Roy and Diana Vagelos Professor in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the structural and chemical biology of metal-dependent enzymes such as the arginases and their evolutionary relatives (e.g., the histone deacetylases), and the terpenoid synthases, which catalyze the most complex carbon-carbon bond forming reactions in biology. Dr. Christianson received his A.B. degree in chemistry from Harvard College in 1983 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1987, after which he joined the Penn faculty in 1988. He has received numerous awards, including the Searle Scholar Award (1989-1992), the Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (1989-1992), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (1993-1994), the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (1999), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2006), and the Underwood Fellowship from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council of the United Kingdom to support a Visiting Professorship in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge (2006-2007). In 2008, Dr. Christianson founded the biopharmaceutical company Arginetix to commercialize arginase inhibitors developed in his Penn laboratory for applications in cardiovascular medicine.
Dr. Pablo G. Debenedetti
Pablo G. Debenedetti is the Class of 1950 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science, Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Vice Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University. He served as Chair of Princeton's Chemical Engineering Department between 1996 and 2004. His research interests include the thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of liquids and glasses; water and aqueous solutions; protein thermodynamics; nucleation; and metastability. He is the author of one book, Metastable Liquids, and more than 180 scientific articles. Metastable Liquids was named "best scholarly book in Chemistry" by the Association of American Publishers (1997). Debenedetti's professional honors include the National Science Foundation's Presidential Young Investigator Award (1987), the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (1989), a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1991), the Professional Progress (1997) and Walker (2008) Awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the John M. Prausnitz Award in Applied Chemical Thermodynamics (2001), the Joel Henry Hildebrand Award in the Theoretical and Experimental Chemistry of Liquids from the American Chemical Society (2008), the Distinguished Teacher Award from Princeton's School of Engineering (2008), and the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching (2008), Princeton's highest distinction for teaching. In 2008 he was named one of the 100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Richard Eisenberg
Richard Eisenberg focuses his research efforts on the chemistry of metal complexes, their structural, electronic and catalytic properties, their photochemistry and photophysics, and their potential use for solar energy conversion and artificial photosynthesis. In the conversion of sunlight into potential energy in the form of solar fuels, the generation of hydrogen from aqueous protons is of paramount importance. While first accomplished 35 years ago, a durable and efficient system for this reaction containing a photosensitizer, a molecular catalyst and a sacrificial electron donor has still eluded development. Dr. Eisenberg’s laboratory is working on this problem, which represents the reductive side of water splitting, and has developed one of the most active systems to date. However, durability remains a challenge that is being addressed based on mechanistic considerations, catalyst effectiveness and photophysical properties. A different line of research activity involves metal complexes as electrophilic catalysts for ring-forming reactions that can be employed in the synthesis of complex organic molecules. Lastly, the synthesis and photophysical characterization of luminescent metal complexes, particularly of Cu(I) and Au(I), are being studied with a view to the possible use of these complexes as dopant emitters in OLED displays and as luminescent sensors.
Dr. Mary Jane Hagenson
Mary Jane Hagenson was Vice President of Research and Technology for Chevron Phillips Chemical Company from the company’s formation in 2000 until her retirement in 2012. In that capacity she was a member of the Leadership Team reporting to the CEO with responsibility for centralized R&D in support of all business lines, Process Development & Engineering, and Licensing functions for the company. In 1998 she was named Vice President of Specialty Chemicals and Plastics for Phillips Petroleum Company (now Conoco Phillips and Phillips 66) with P&L responsible for four global specialty business units. She joined Phillips Petroleum Company as a Senior Research Scientist in the Biotechnology Division and held a number of technical and business management positions over her 27-year career with Phillips and subsequently Chevron Phillips. Dr. Hagenson received a B.S. Degree in Physics and Mathematics and M.S. and Ph.D. Degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Iowa State University, with graduate research performed at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She holds seven U.S. Patents and has authored more than 20 technical papers. In 2006 she was the recipient of the College of Engineering Professional Achievement Citation in Engineering (PACE) Award from Iowa State University. Hagenson is a member of the National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering Advisory Committee and is Chair of the Iowa State University Chemical & Biological Engineering Department Industrial Advisory Council. She has served as a member and Chair of the College of Engineering Industrial Advisory Council at Iowa State University, a member of the Board of Directors of the Industrial Research Institute, and the Oklahoma State University Master of Engineering & Technology Management Advisory Committee.
Dr. Carol J. Henry
Carol J. Henry is an advisor and consultant to public and private organizations, focusing on issues in toxicology and risk assessment, public and environmental health, and domestic and international science and public policy. She retired as Vice President, Industry Performance Programs at the American Chemistry Council (ACC) in November 2007. She is a member of the Federal Advisory Committee for the National Children's Study, the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine; Environmental Health Perspectives Editorial Board, the American College of Toxicology, of which she has been president; the Society of Toxicology; the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is President- Elect of the Chemical Society of Washington of the American Chemical Society and cochair of the Cyprus International Institute for Public Health and Environment in Association with the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Henry received her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota and doctorate in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology, certified in general toxicology.
Dr. Jill Hruby
Jill Hruby is the Sandia National Laboratories vice president for Energy, Security and Defense Technologies. The Energy, Security and Defense Technologies organization primarily supports Sandia’s mission efforts in energy and resource systems research and development, nuclear power, environmental quality, the reduction of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the global threat of terrorism, and the protection of nuclear and other vital national assets. Dr. Hruby will also lead Sandia’s International, Homeland, and Nuclear Security Strategic Management Unit (SMU), including Sandia’s strategic initiative on nuclear security. This initiative focuses on all aspects of nuclear security including nonproliferation, technology support to arms control activity, global nuclear security and threat reduction, nuclear asset protection and detection and response to weapons of mass destruction. Most recently the director of Homeland Security and Defense Systems at Sandia’s Livermore, Calif., site, Hruby has been with Sandia for more than 25 years. She has served as Sandia’s director of Materials and Engineering Sciences, where she was responsible for materials research and development and microsystem fabrication and performance. Over the course of her Sandia career, she has also been actively engaged with nanoscience research, hydrogen storage, solar energy research, mechanical component design, thermal analysis and microfluidics.
Dr. Michael C. Kerby
Michael Kerby is the global chemical research manager for ExxonMobil Chemical. He joined ExxonMobil’s Process Development Laboratories in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1989. Over the last 20 years he has held a number of technical and management positions within ExxonMobil Research and Engineering, ExxonMobil Refining and Supply Company, and ExxonMobil Chemical Company. He holds 29 U.S. patents and was recently part of a team that was recognized with the American Chemical Society’s Heroes of Chemistry award for the development and commercialization of the Nebula catalyst used for producing cleaner diesel fuel. Michael C. Kerby received his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of Texas, Austin, and performed postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Charles E. Kolb
Charles E. Kolb, Jr. is the president and chief executive officer of Aerodyne Research, Inc. He joined Aerodyne as a Senior Research Scientist in 1971. At Aerodyne, his personal areas of research have included atmospheric and environmental chemistry, combustion chemistry, chemical lasers, materials chemistry, and the chemical physics of rocket and aircraft exhaust plumes. In the area of atmospheric and environmental chemistry, Dr. Kolb initiated Aerodyne's programs for the identification and quantification of sources and sinks of trace atmospheric gases and aerosols involved in regional and global pollution problems, as well as the development of spectral sensing techniques to quantify soil pollutants. He received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Princeton University.
Dr. Sander G. Mills
Sander Mills is a vice president in discovery and preclinical sciences, and global head of chemistry. His areas of responsibility include discovery chemistry, process chemistry, analytical chemistry, structural chemistry, and chemistry modeling and informatics. After graduating from Drew University, he completed his Ph.D. in organic chemistry in professor Peter Beak’s laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. He then carried out post-doctoral studies in the laboratories of professor Clayton H.Heathcock at the University of California, Berkeley as an NIH postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Mills joined Merck Research Laboratories in 1985 in the department of process research, and moved to the medicinal chemistry area in 1989. Dr. Mills' research at Merck has been wide-ranging, dealing with the design and synthesis of small molecules to treat asthma, pain, HIV infection, autoimmune diseases, and CNS disorders. In 1993 he was part of the team that discovered aprepitant ( EMEND®), which in 2003 became the first substance P antagonist marketed for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. He and his group went on to identify fosaprepitant ( IVEMEND®), a water-soluble prodrug of aprepitant for parenteral administration, which gained regulatory approval in 2008. Dr. Mills has been an author or co-author on more than 90 papers in professional journals on drug design, synthetic organic chemistry and the biology of medicinally active substances. He has been an inventor or co-inventor on eighty U.S. patents covering an array of drug candidates and synthetic methods. He is a member of theOrganic Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry Sections of the American Chemical Society, AAAS and Sigma Xi.
Dr. David Morse
David Morse joined Corning in 1976 in glass research. This work led to 19 patents and more than 20 publications. In 1985, he was named senior research associate. Morse was charged in 1985 with establishing the Optical Components Research Department, followed by a number of R&D management positions. He was appointed to his current position in May 2006. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, chairman of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy Board at Washington University in St. Louis, the Board of Industry Advisors of International Materials Institutes for New Functionality in Glass (MI-NFG) and the Cornell Scientific Advisory Board for the Energy Materials Center. Morse graduated from Bowdoin College magna cum laude in 1973 and was granted a doctorate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. He was elected to the MIT chapter of Sigma Xi.
Dr. Robert E. Roberts
Robert Roberts is the Director of the Science and Technology Policy Institute and Senior Scientist at the Institute for Defense Analyses. He is the former Vice President for Research and Director of IDA's Science and Technology Division. Before joining IDA, he spent several years with the Department of Energy, and prior to that, he was associate professor of chemistry at Indiana University. Dr. Roberts is founder, former director, and mentor for the IDA Defense Science Study Group, a program established to foster interest in national security issues among outstanding young professors of science and engineering. Dr. Roberts received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon), his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, and was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Darlene J.S. Solomon
Darlene J.S. Solomon is Agilent's Chief Technology Officer. Her responsibilities include developing the company's long-term technology strategy and overseeing the alignment of Agilent's objectives with its centralized research-and-development activities.
Solomon brings extensive experience in R&D and management to her current leadership role at Agilent. She joined Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in 1984 as a member of the technical staff, subsequently holding a variety of research and management positions there, including R&D manager for the Chemical and Biological Systems Department. She joined Agilent Technologies when the company was formed in 1999. Prior to being named to her current post, Solomon was Vice President and Director of Agilent Laboratories, which was preceeded by her dual role of director of the Life Sciences Technologies Laboratory within Agilent Labs, as well as senior director, research and development/technology, for Agilent's Life Sciences and Chemical Analysis business. Solomon received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Stanford University, a doctorate in bioinorganic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and completed Stanford University's Executive Development Program. With numerous patents and publications to her name, Solomon was inducted into the Women in Technology International's Hall of Fame in 2001, received the YWCA Tribute to Women and Industry Award in 2004, and named to Diversity Journal's Women Worth Watching in 2007 and to Corporate Board Member's 50 Top Women in Technology in 2008.
Solomon serves on multiple academic and government advisory and review boards, including the National Research Council Review Committee for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, California's Blue Ribbon Task Force on Nanotechnology (chair of R&D), NSF/NIST/NIBIB's Committee to Sustain America's Competitive Edge, and external advisory boards for the National Science Foundation Nanobiotechnology Center, A-STAR Board for Singapore Economic Development, Stanford University Interdisciplinary Biosciences Advisory Coucil and the US Army Science Board.
Dr. Timothy Swager
Timothy M. Swager, NAS, is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Chemistry a at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, In 2007, he was recognized with the Lemelson-MIT Prize for his inventive accomplishments that stem from original molecular-based designs. Among Swager's notable inventions is an amplified chemical sensor that uses molecular wires to detect the presence of vapors from explosives, such as TNT. Related technologies have been developed for the detection of the plant hormone ethylene for applications in food management and agriculture. He has also invented near-infrared optical imaging agents that could someday enable simpler techniques for screening and diagnosing Alzheimer's disease and organic radicals that can be used for enhanced NMR imaging. Dr. Swager is also a founder of founder of multiple startups, most recently DyNuPol and PolyJoule. After receiving his B.S. from Montana State University in 1983, Swager went to the California Institute of Technology for graduate and doctoral work under the direction of Robert H. Grubbs, who in 2005 won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. After earning his Ph.D. in 1988, he took a post-doctoral assignment at MIT and became an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania in the early 1990s. Swager returned to MIT as a faculty member in 1996. Dr. Swager received an honorary doctorate degree from Montana State University for his work in polymer and organic chemistry. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed papers, 11 book chapters, more than 50 issued/pending patents and serves on multiple editorial boards. His research interests include developing new chemistries and applications utilizing organic electronic materials, including carbon nanomaterials, electronic polymers and organic radicals, with specific interests in chemical sensors, photovoltaics, energy storage, catalysis, liquid crystals, and NMR/NIR imaging . Since starting his independent academic career Swager has received a number of awards and honors including: Election to the National Academy of Sciences, 2008, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2006, Christopher Columbus Foundation Homeland Security Award 2005, The Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award (ACS-Polymer Div) 2005, Clare Hall Visiting Fellow (U. Cambridge, England) 2005, Vladimir Karapetoff Award (MIT) 2000, Cope Scholar Award (ACS) 2000, Union Carbide Innovation Recognition Award 1997-8, Philadelphia Section Award (ACS) 1996, Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar 1995-1997, Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow 1994-1996, DuPont Young Faculty Award 1993-1996, NSF-Young Investigator 1992-1997, Office of Naval Research Young Investigator 1992-1995.
Dr. Jean Tom
Jean Tom received Bachelor degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering and graduated with a Masters degree in chemical engineering practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985. She joined Merck Research Laboratories in the area of process development and then returned to graduate school as an NSF Fellow in 1989. Dr. Tom received her Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1993 from Princeton, under direction of Professor Debenedetti in the area of particle formation from supercritical solutions. After graduation she rejoined Merck where she led pilot plant operations and development projects. In 2006 she joined Bristol-Myers Squibb as Director of Development Engineering in Process R&D; a position she currently holds. Dr. Tom has had a role in eight pharmaceutical products currently marketed.
Dr. David Walt
David R. Walt is Robinson Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Tufts University and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from SUNY at Stony Brook. His laboratory is world-renowned for its pioneering work that applies micro- and nano-technology to urgent biological problems such as the analysis of genetic variation and the behavior of single cells, single molecule detection, as well as the practical application of arrays to the detection of explosives, chemical and biological warfare agents, and food and waterborne pathogens. Dr. Walt is the Scientific Founder and a Director of both Illumina Inc. and Quanterix Corp. He has received numerous national and international awards and honors for his fundamental and applied work in the field of optical sensors and arrays. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on a number of NRC committees including the Committee on Review and Evaluation Methodology for Biological Point Detectors.
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Award No. DE-FG02-07ER15872
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. CHE-0925448
For more information on the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology, please contact Rachel Yancey (ryancey@nas.edu).