Jim has stepped down after 30 years in executive IT leadership to return to his faculty appointment at UCLA and his research roots in AI, ML, intelligent systems, and data science in manufacturing. He has accepted an appointment as Special Advisor on Smart Manufacturing and Data Science in the Office of Research and Creative Activities. As a co-founder of the U.S. Smart Manufacturing Initiative, Jim will expand activities that continue to define, build, and shape industry adoption for manufacturing and environmental sustainability, while also working with UCLA on its Data Science...Read more

Bill Bridges is President of Process Improvement Institute (PII). He is considered one of the leading authorities on process safety engineering and human error prevention. He has a BS/MS in Chemical Engineering and he 30+ years of chemical industry experience in process engineering, process development, management and safety evaluation, and operations. He holds 10 US patents. Mr. Bridges has a wealth of hands-on experience in operations and in implementing PSM. His last position in the industry was as a chemical plant manager. Bill has helped many companies in the petroleum,...Read more

Michael Wong is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and the Department of Chemistry, at Rice University. He received his B.S. from Caltech (1994), and M.S. (1997) and Ph.D. (2000) from MIT, all in Chemical Engineering. He did his post-doc with G. D. Stucky in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC Santa Barbara, before coming to Rice in 2001. His research program lies at the interface of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, and Materials Science, centered around the concept of engineered nanoparticles. His team of post-docs, graduate...Read more

Raymond Nims brings over 37 years of experience in the biomedical sciences. He currently provides consulting services as an employee of RMC Pharmaceutical Solutions. From 2006 to 2009, Ray served in Amgen’s corporate Quality Control group, providing subject matter expertise in viral and mycoplasma testing of raw materials and products, and serving as business process owner for Amgen’s global contract analytical testing lab outsourcing program. From 1994 to 2006, Ray directed laboratories at BioReliance performing viral safety, endotoxin, and...Read more

Eric Borgstedt is Director, Global Sales and Marketing, SEPCOR, Inc.

He has held positions at SYMYX Technologies, Inc., Sebtech & Marketing, The BOC Group, The Catalyst Group, The PQ Corporation and Katalistiks/UOP.

Borgstedt received his Ph.D., in Chemical Materials Engineering from the University of Connecticut. He also has both his M.S. & B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

He is a member of the Licensing Executive Society (LES), Commercial Development and Marketing Association (CDMA), American Chemical Society (ACS),...Read more

Dr. Angela Summers is president of SIS-TECH, a specialty engineering and consulting company. Dr. Summers received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama. She is a licensed professional engineer in Texas and is a member of AIChE, CCPS, ISA, and IEC. Dr. Summers has more than 20 years of experience in safety instrumented systems (SIS), process engineering, and environmental engineering. She is an active participant in standard’s committees, such as ISA and IEC, and has published over 50 papers on topics related to process safety and instrumented system design. She...Read more

Dr. Maoqi (Mark) Feng is a Senior Research Scientist at the Chemical Engineering Department, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), San Antonio, Texas. At SwRI, Dr. Feng’s current research focuses on fuel production from coal, natural gas, biomass, and waste, and catalyst development for liquid fuel processing.Read more

Michael Iwaniw has worked at The Dow Chemical Company since 2002, after obtaining his B.A. in Chemistry from Kalamazoo College, and his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. In addition to holding a full-time position in Specialty Latex at Dow, Mr. Iwaniw is currently completing requirements for his M.B.A. in Management from Northwood University

Mr. Iwaniw began his career at Dow in a rotational program, with six-month assignments as a Process Engineer (design) in Midland, MI; a Run Plant Engineer for Ethoxylates production in St. Charles, LA; and an...Read more

Meredith Trotta is founder of The Polished Student, a company providing private coaching for college students entering the career world. Before starting The Polished Student, Meredith spent over ten years as a corporate recruiter for Time Inc.’s marketing department in New York City focusing on the hiring of top undergraduate and MBA talent for both internships and full-time jobs.

After graduating from the University of Connecticut, Meredith began her career working in college admissions. She worked in undergraduate admissions for Plymouth State College and UConn, and graduate...Read more