About this event
Moderated by the Acceleration Consortium’s (AC) Zamyla Chan, Associate Director of Platforms and Training, the panel features leaders across the field of accelerated molecular and materials discovery, including:
- Preeti Kamakoti, Technology Lead, ExxonMobil
- Lilo Pozzo, Chair, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington (and AC member)
- Pantea Razzaghi, Head of Design, Automata
- Shijing Sun, Research Scientist, Toyota Research Institute
- Helen Tran, Assistant Professor, Chemistry, University of Toronto (and AC member)
This year’s IWD #BreakTheBias theme calls on us to celebrate women's achievement, raise awareness against bias, and take action for equality. To honour the day, learn about our panellists and their professional journeys, the challenges they've overcome along the way, and their ideas for a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive world.
---
PANELISTS
- Zamyla Morgan Chan is an inorganic and physical chemist with materials science, engineering, and computer science training. As the AC's Associate Director of Platforms and Training, she is excited to train the next generation of scientists in accelerated materials discovery. After obtaining her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Her research seeks to facilitate accelerated discovery of scalable and stable materials by leveraging robotics, machine learning, and fundamental science for inverse design. For 10 years she served as the Walkthrough Lead to millions of students for CS50 and CS50x, one of the most popular computer science courses worldwide.
- Preeti Kamakoti is a technology lead at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering. She holds a PhD in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. In recent years, she envisioned, built from grounds-up and leads an initiative combining digitalization and AI to accelerate and transform how materials R&D is done.
- Lilo Pozzo is currently the Boeing-Roundhill Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington where she has served since 2007. Since 2021, she also chairs the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UW. Pozzo’s research interests are in the area of colloids, polymers, and nanoparticulate systems, with particular emphasis on implementing AI-accelerated approaches for soft matter research. Her research group focuses on controlling and manipulating materials structure for applications in health, alternative energy and separations. In addition to her research activities, she is also dedicated to improving engineering education with course development in areas of entrepreneurship, open science, and service-oriented global engagement.
- Pantea Razzaghi is a strategic design and user experience specialist with 15+ years in research, product design and communication strategy, working primarily with start-ups and innovative technologists exploring the digitization of biological workflows and distributed science. Currently she is the Head of Design at Automata, a London based biotech company providing robotic automation solutions to the life sciences industry. Pantea is inspired by the day to day hustle of scientists and believes design plays a paramount role in enabling experiential advancements while improving quality of life for scientists.
- Shijing Sun is a research scientist at the Energy & Materials Division, Toyota Research Institute. Her research focuses on data-driven discovery, design and optimization of functional materials for carbon-neutral mobility. She obtained her Ph.D. in materials science at University of Cambridge and did postdoctoral research in mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2018 – 2021, she was a research scientist head of Team Accelerated Materials as MIT Photovoltaics Research Laboratory, where she led the development of low-cost solar cells leveraging high-throughput experiments, artificial intelligence, and advanced characterization using synchrotron facilities.
- Helen Tran is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Chemistry (co-appointed in the Department of Chemical Engineering). Her research program leverages polymer chemistry to develop materials encoded with information for self-assembly, degradability, and electronic transport to address challenges in health and sustainability. Helen is committed to scientific outreach, endorses communication among interdisciplinary disciplines, and continually strives to become a supportive mentor.
