Dr. Cristina Thomas is currently the manager of Corporate R&D Services Center at 3M. As manger, Thomas is the Senior Technical Leader and RPR R& D Global Process Owner reporting to the Vice President of R&D/CTO . She has over 27 years service with 3M starting as a Sr. Research Engineer after receiving a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts. Thomas advanced through R&D Management positions involving safety, security, strategic planning, and global application development. She holds several patents and has given numerous presentations and published extensively.
Dr. Thomas’ professional society memberships include AIChE and ACS serving in a variety of leadership positions. Her work in the community includes science encouragement programs (e.g. STEP), Big Brothers/Sisters, and UMass and University of Wisconsin Industrial Board or Relations Team. At 3M she has been active in the Women’s Leadership Forum.
As an active senior member of AIChE, Dr. Thomas is chair of the Women’s Initiative Committee 2019 Spring Programming and was involved with planning and execution of the 2017 Annual Meeting.