TechConnect World Innovation Conference & Expo 2018 | TechConnect | 13 May 2018 | Hilton Anaheim, 777 W Convention Way, Anaheim, CA 92802, United States

For over 20 years the TechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo has connected top applied research and early-stage innovations from universities, labs, and startups with industry end-users and prospectors. The 2018 TechConnect World Innovation event includes the annual SBIR/STTR Spring Innovation Conference, Spring Defense TechConnect, the TechConnect Technical Program - more than 35 world-class technical symposium, and the Nanotech Conference Series – the world's largest and longest running nanotechnology event.

2018 Speakers

Frank Abdi
Chief Scientist, CTO, AlphaSTAR Corporation

Ritesh Agarwal
Professor, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Pennsylvania

Mason Ailstock
Vice President, Operations, TUFF

Becky Aistrup
Managing Partner, BBC Entrepreneurial Training and Consulting

Tracy L. Albers
President and CTO, Rapid Prototype and Manufacturing, LLC.

Anthony Aldrich
SBIR Program Manager, U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)

Evangelyn C. Alocilja
Professor and Program Director, Michigan State University

Mansoor M. Amiji
Distinguished Professor & Chair, Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Co-Director, Nanomedicine Education & Research Consortium, Northeastern University

Thomas Anchordoquy
Professor, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Colorado School of Pharmacy

Dimitri Antoniadis
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Todd Arndorfer
Business Growth Manager, Carestream

Wolfgang S. Bacsa
Professor, University of Toulouse, France

Alex Balandin
Professor, University of California, Riverside

Dustin Banham
Senior Research Scientist, Ballard Power Systems, Canada

Terrance Barkan
Executive Director, The Graphene Council

Rick Barto
Senior Manager MPACT - Materials, Physics, and Computational Technologies, Lockheed Martin

Paolo Bavaj
Head of Corporate Venturing , Henkel Adhesive Technologies

Christie Bell
Certified Licensing Professional(CLP), Montana Department of Commerce

Dhimiter Bello
Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Andrea Belz
Vice Dean, Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship, USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Andrew Berner
Senior Engineer, GE Global Research

Jean Berthier
Scientist, CEA-LETI-Minatec, France

Kaustubh D. Bhalerao
Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Brent Boyce
Director of Concept Development , Guardian Glass

Brent Boyce
Director of Concept Development , Guardian Glass

Vincent F. Bralts
Professor Of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University

Michael Brodeur
Associate Director, Strategic Business Development, United Technologies Research Center

Maria Burns Ortiz
Co-Founder and CEO, 7 Generation Games

Elizabeth Burton
Program Manager, CIEE (California Institute for Energy and Environment) , UC Berkeley

Ahmed Busnaina
Director, Center for High-rate Nano manufacturing, Northeastern University

Matt Carr
Executive Director, Algae Biomass Organization

Fiona Case
Technical Program Chair, TechConnect

Dana Catron
Program Manager, New Mexico Federal and State Technology Partnership (NM FAST) program, New Mexico State University’s Arrowhead Center

Susan Celis
Program Director Small Business Programs Office, DARPA

Yogesh Singh Chauhan
Editor, IEEE Transactions; Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Hongda Chen
National Program Leader, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Manish Chhowalla
Professor & Associate Department Chair, Materials Science and Engineering, Rutgers University

Siau Ben Chiah
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Micro-/Nano-electronics, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Amy Elizabeth Childress
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California

Zina Cinker
Executive Director, National Graphene Association

Mary Clague
SBIR Program Manager, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Ronald A. Coutu
Professor and V. Clayton Lafferty Endowed Chair, Marquette University

Edmond Cretu
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Canada

Mark Davidson
Small Business Innovation and Technology Partnerships Office, California Institute of Technology’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mark E. Davis
Warren and Katharine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology

Douglas Deason
Director, Advanced Research, Missile Defense Agency

Philip Demokritou
Director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology, Harvard School of Public Health

Thomas Diamond
Vice President of Environmental, Safety, & Health, SUNY Colleges of Nanoscale Science & Engineering

Scott Dockum
Program Coordinator, SBIR, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Jennifer Donahue
Key Account Manager, Croda Inc.

Susan Donaldson
Health & Safety COE Leader, General Electric

Christopher Earl
Director of the Grants Department, Riverside Community College District

Marcius Extavour
Senior Director, Energy and Resources, XPrize

Bengt Fadeel
Professor, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Jeffrey Fagan
Project Leader, NIST

Michael Fancher
Director, New York State Center for Advance Technology in Nanomaterials and Nanoelectronics, Associate Professor, SUNY Polytechnic Institute

Alex Fensore
Associate Director of Innovation, Sherwin Williams

Joe Fox
Director, Emerging & External Technologies, Ashland Performance Materials

Hans Fraaije
Founder, Culgi Inc

Victor Frenkel
Associate Professor, Dept. of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Lisa E. Friedersdorf
Director, National Nanotechnology Coordination Office

Edward Furlani
Professor, University at Buffalo (SUNY)

Vince Garcia
Program Manager, NOAA, Department of Commerce (DoC)

Slade H Gardner
Founder, Big Metal Additive, Inc.

Dariusz Gawin
Professor of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Lodz, Poland

Nick Geitner
Duke University

Chuck Geraci
Associate Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Sudip Ghosh
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

Sudip Ghosh
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India

Jere Glover
Attorney, Seidman & Associates, P.C.

Jim Greenwood
Greenwood Consulting Group

Murat Guvendiren
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical, Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)

Imre Gyuk
Program Manager, Energy Storage Research, U.S. Department of Energy

Bahman Habibzadeh
Technology Manager, Fuel Cell Technologies Office, US Department of Energy

Johannes Hachmann
Assistant Professor, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Chris Harrison
Habermann Chair and an Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction, Carnegie Mellon University

Jonathan Hartman
Disruptive Technologies Lead, Sikorsky Innovations, a Lockheed Martin company

Greg Haugstad
Technical Staff Member & Director, Characterization Facility (CharFac), University of Minnesota

Blake Heller
Graduate Student, Baylor University

Eric M.V. Hoek
Co-Founder and CEO, Water Planet

Christian Hoepfner
Center Director, Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems

John Howard
Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

Michael Z. Hu
Sr. Research Staff Member, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Matthew Hull
NanoSafe, Inc., Virginia Tech, US

Sean Ireland
Vice President of Business Development, Fiberlean Technologies Ltd

Srinivas Iyer
Group Leader, Bioscience Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Ed Jameson
CEO, Jameson & Company CPAs

Bjørn Petter Jelle
Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and, Chief Scientist, SINTEF Building and Infrastructure, Norway

Kane Jennings
Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Vanderbilt University

Kwang Cheol (KC) Jeong
Assistant Professor, University of Florida

Charles Bret Jessee
Director Product Development, TEI Biosciences Inc.

Ramesh Jha
Technical Staff Member, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Shaoyi Jiang
Boeing-Roundhill Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Washington

Binbin Jie
Department of Physics, Xiamen University, China

Ayana Johnson
Senior Director, Open/Innovation Business Development, Invista

Jim Johnston
Professor, School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

Katherine Jungjohann
Sandia National Lab

Yuriko Kaida
General Manager, AGC North Americas

Mandakini Kanungo
Research and Technology, Corning, Inc.

Trevor Keel
Material Value, UK; Technical Director, Silver Institute, USA

Daniel Kim
Managing Partner , Kim & Baum, LLP

Sung Jae Kim
Seoul National University, Korea

Woo Soo Kim
Associate Professor, School of Mechatronic Systems Engineering, Simon Fraser University

Kevin Kjoller
Vice President, Anasys Instruments

Anton Köck
Materials Center Leoben Forschung GmbH, Austria

Matthias Koebel
Head Building Energy Materials and Components Laboratory, Empa, Switzerland

Bryan Koene
Director of Advanced Materials, Luna Innovations

Peter Koenig
roup Head, Procter & Gamble

Jindřich Henry Kopeček
Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, University of Utah

Carlo A. Kosik-Williams
Research Manager, Corning Incorporated

Jan Kośny
Director, Building Enclosures and Materials, Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems

Arun Kota
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State University

Steve Koziol
Assistant Regional Director, Silicon Valley regional office, United States Patent and Trademark Office

Pragya Kushwaha
Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of California, Berkeley

Gilles S.C. Lamant
Distinguished Engineer, Cadence Design Systems

Gierad Laput
Carnegie Mellon University

Kock-Yee Law
Founder and CEO, Research and Innovative Solutions

Abraham (Abe) P. Lee
Editor-in-Chief, Lab on a Chip, William J. Link Professor of Biomedical Engineering, UC-Irvine

Sang-Young Lee
Professor, Head, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, UNIST, Korea

W. Matthew Leevy
Professor, Director of Biological Imaging, University of Notre Dame

Melbs LeMieux
Co-founder and President, Electroninks Incorporated

Martin E. Leser

Expert in Colloid & Interface Science, Nestlé Research Center Lausanne, Switzerland

Carol Lewis
SBIR/STTR Technology Transition Lead, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Gengchiau Liang
National University of Singapore, Singapore

Kirby (Ken-Hsuan) Liao
Technical Manager, DuPont Silicon Valley Technology Center

C. Rebecca Locker
Research Associate, Corporate Strategic Research, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co

Ning Lu
Senior Engineer, IBM Systems

Matt Lucas
Associate Director for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration, Center for Carbon Removal

Joe Lupia
Director Technical Innovations, BASF

Ning Ma
Staff Scientist, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering

Eric MacDonald
Professor and Friedman Chair, Youngstown State University

Misty Madero
Industry Contracts Officer, University of California, Riverside (UCR) Office of Technology Partnerships

Marc Madou
Chancellor's Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UC Irvine

Jon Magnuson
Small Business Innovative Research Technology Lead at Boeing Phantom Works, Boeing

Gedi Mainelis
Professor, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers University

Prithwiraj Maitra
Ph.D; Research Director & Fellow, Johnson and Johnson

Michael Makowski
Technical Platform Manager, PPG Industries

Jason Marsh
Director of Technology, NextFlex, America's Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute

Fiona Marshall
CEO, AgPlus Diagnostics

Michael McComas
Director of External Innovation, BAE Systems Electronic Systems

Kevin McCreight, Ph.D.
Technology Manager, External Innovation, Eastman Chemical Company

Jeffrey R. McCutcheon
Al Geib Professor, Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut

Chris McNeal
Presidential Management Fellow, SBA Office of Investment and Innovation

Jeff Meinhardt
Prototyping Lab Manager, Additive Development Center, GE Aviation

Carl Meinhart
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara

Rachel Melnick
National Program Leader for Agroclimatology, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)

Chris Menzel
Principal Scientist, Fujifilm Dimatix, Inc

Meyya Meyyappan
Chief Scientist for Exploration Technology at the Center for Nanotechnology, NASA Ames Research Center

Baoxia Mi
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley

Benjamin L. Miller
Professor, Academic Lead, AIM Photonics, University of Rochester Medical Center

Daniel Milstead
Chief, Indirect Cost Branch B, Division of Financial Advisory Services, NIH

Mitiko Miura-Mattausch
Hiroshima University, Japan

Sven Mumme
Envelope Technology Manager Building Technologies Office, U.S Department of Energy

Ron Munson
Global CCS Institute

Natalie Muzzio
Contract and Grant Officer, Stanford University

Prakash Nallathamby
Research Assistant Professor, Center for Nano Science and Technology, University of Notre Dame, US

Dondee Navarro
Hiroshima University, Japan

Kim Nelson
VP Nanocellulose Technology, American Process Inc.

Thuc-Quyen Nguyen
Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara

World L-S Nieh
Forest Products National Program Lead, U.S. Forest Service

Jan-Steffen Niehaus
Head of Department Quantum Materials, Fraunhofer-Center for Applied Nanotechnology CAN, Germany

Alex Norman
Staff Chemist, ExxonMobil Chemical

Chris O'Gwin
Manager, SBIR/STTR Outreach and Assistance, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SBIR/STTR

Rosibel Ochoa
Associate Vice Chancellor Technology Partnerships, University of California, Riverside

Kwang W. Oh
Associate Professor, University at Buffalo (SUNY)

Manny Oliver
Director, SBIR/STTR Program Office, U.S. Department of Energy

Michele L. Ostraat
Research Center Leader - Downstream, Aramco Services Company

Craig Owens
Program Manger, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, Lockheed Martin

Aydogan Ozcan
Chancellor’s Professor, UCLA, HHMI Professor, Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Pierre Panine
Senior Scientist, Xenocs SA, France

Dinakar Panyam
Innovation Partnerships & Licensing Manager, Nestle, Switzerland

Joseph Paradiso
Director of the Responsive Environments Group, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Sung Park
CEO, Molecular Vista

Zehra Parlak
Founder and President, Qatch Technologies

David Pascoe
Vice-President of Engineering and R&D, Magna International Inc.

Anil Patri
Director, NCTR/ORA NanoCore, National Center for Toxicological Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Lian-Mao Peng
Director of the Center for Carbon based Nanoelectronics, Peking University, China

Ravi Pillai
Vice President, Cosmetic Ingredients Division, Symrise AG

Johan Pluyter
Founder, Pluyter Consulting

Martin E. Poitzsch
Team Leader, Reservoir Engineering Technology, Aramco Research Center, Boston

Larry Pollack
Joint Science & Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (JSTO-CBD), Defense Threat Reduction Agency

Elena Polyakova
CEO, Graphene 3D Lab, Inc

Matthew Portnoy
NIH SBIR/STTR Program Manager, National Institutes of Health

Michael Pratt
Managing Director, Office of Technology Development, Boston University

Katherine Price Hoelschler
Team Leader, MISWACO-Schlumberger

Robert K. Prud'homme
Professor and Director Program in Engr. Biology, Princeton University

John Pucci
SBIR Manager, U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Sanyogitta Puri
Associate Principle Scientist, AstraZeneca, United Kingdom

Ujwal Radhakrishna
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Margaret Ramey
Outreach Manager , Center for Technology Commercialization (CTC), University of Wisconsin

YuanQiao Rao
Fellow, The Dow Chemical Company

Steve Ready
Member of the Research Staff, Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)

Gabriel M. Rebeiz
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, San Diego

Jordan Reynolds
Deputy Operations Manager, SBIR/ STTR Program, Missile Defense Agency (MDA)

April Richards
Program Manager, SBIR, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

April Richards
Program Manager, SBIR, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Jenna Rickus
Professor Of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University

Emily Riley
R&D Director of Breakthrough and Open Innovation, Energizer

Jennifer Rocha
Executive Director, Corporate, Federal & Defense Programs, TechConnect

Ross Roley
Energy Innovation Lead, US Pacific Command-PACOM

Jason Rolland
VP of Materials, Carbon, Inc.

Bart Romanowicz
CTO, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, TechConnect

Rick Ross
Senior Research Chemist, 3M Company

Jaijeet Roychowdhury
University of California, Berkeley

Robert Ryan
Chief Executive Officer, President, Twining, Inc.

Chihtang Sah
Professor of Physics, Xiamen University, China

Fernando Sanchez-Riera
Sr. Director Fermentation Process Development, REG Life Sciences, Renewable Energy Group

Ajit Sapre
Group President R&T, Reliance Industries Ltd

Peter Scheuer
Senior HSE Manager, Honeywell- F&MT

Elke Scholten
Associate Professor, Faculty of Agrotechnology and Food Sciences, Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands

Michael Schröter
University of Technology Dresden, Germany

Maggie Scully
Scientist I, Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, National Cancer Institute

Purnesh Seegopaul
General Partner, Pangaea Ventures

Brent M Segal
Director of Research Science and Chief Technologist, Lockheed Martin

Paul Semenza
Director of Commercialization, NextFlex

Philippe Serp
Professor, Laboratoire de Chimie de Coordination, CNRS, Institute National Polytechnique de Toulouse, France

Rahul Sharma
Research Specialist, The Dow Chemical Company

John Sharon
Staff Scientist, Advanced Materials Group, United Technologies Research Center

Jo Anne Shatkin
President, Vireo Advisors

Andrei Shkel
Professor, University of California, Irvine

Brittany Sickler
Outreach and Partnership Strategist, U.S. Small Business Administration

David S Simmons
Assistant Professor of Polymer Engineering, University of Akron`

Harjit Singh
Senior Lecturer, Brunel University London, United Kingdom

Michael Spaid
Chief Executive and Chief Technology Officer, Cambrios Advanced Materials Corporation

Aaron Stebner
Director ADAPT Center, Colorado School of Mines

ohn B. Stetson
Senior Technical Fellow, Lockheed Martin

Derek M. Stevens
Product and Process R&D Leader, Dow Energy and Water Solutions

Brian Suh
Director of Technology Commercialization, University of California, Riverside (UCR) Office of Technology Partnerships

Brian Suh
Director of Technology Commercialization, University of California, Riverside (UCR) Office of Technology Partnerships

Anirudha V. Sumant
Materials Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory

Frank Szoka
Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board, ZoneOne Pharma

Frank Szoka
Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board, ZoneOne Pharma

Emmanouil M Tentzeris
Ken Byers Professor in Flexible Electronics, Georgia Tech

Rich Terrile
Science Mission Directorate Liaison for the NASA SBIR Program, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Cristina Thomas
Senior Technical Leader, 3M

Sally Tinkle
Senior Strategy and Policy Advisor, IDA/Science and Technology Policy Institute

Loucas Tsakalakos
Technology Platform Leader, GE Global Research

Mark Tuominen
Professor of Physics, UMass Amherst, Director, National Nanomanufacturing Network

Thomas E. Twardowski
Founder, Twardowski Scientific

Scott Twary
Research Scientist and Team Leader, Biome and Bioenergy Group, Los Alamos National Laboratory

Puneet Tyagi
Scientist II , MedImmune

Hasan Uludag
Professor, Chemical & Materials Engineering Department, University of Alberta, Canada

James Unterreiner
GameChanger, Shell

Vuk Uskokovic
Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering, College of Medicine, The University of Illinois at Chicago

Krassimir Velikov
Program Director at NanoNextNL, Science Leader at Unilever, Netherlands

Samuel Wadsworth
Co-founder & CSO, Aspect Biosystems Ltd.

Donnell Walton
Director, Corning Technology Center Silicon Valley, Corning Research & Development Corporation

Andrew Wang
President, Alpha Biobeads, LLC, President, Ocean NanoTech, LL

Tianshi Wang
University of California, Berkeley

Wei Wang
Research Science Specialist, Aramco Research Center - Boston

Jason Weiss
Miles Lowell and Margaret Watt Edwards Distinguished Chair in Engineering, Oregon State University

Lloyd Whitman
Principal Assistant Director, Physical Sciences and Engineering, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Kenton H. Whitmire
Professor of Chemistry, Rice University

Chris Williams
Virginia Tech

John Williams
Director of Innovation & Technology, SBA, Office of Investment & Innovation

Dave Williamson
CTO , Modern Meadow

Adria Wilson
Technology Manager, U.S. Department of Energy

William (Cy) Wilson
Electronics Engineer, NASA Langley Research Center

Wendel Wohlleben
Senior Scientist, BASF SE, Germany

Alexandra Wright-Gladstein
Co-Founder and CEO, Ayar Labs, Inc.

Yiliang Wu
Principal Scientist, TE Connectivity

Dalia Yablon
Founder, SurfaceChar LLC

Jun Yang
Professor, Director of WIN 4.0, The University of Western Ontario, Canada

Yaroslava G. Yingling
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, NC State University

Jenny Zhen Yu
ssistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Aliaksandr Zaretski
Founder & CTO, GrollTex, Inc.

Aliaksandr Zaretski
Founder & CTO, GrollTex, Inc.

Chongwu Zhou
Professor of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California (USC)

Xing Zhou
Professor, Nanyang Technological University

Gregory R. Ziegler
Professor of Food Science, Penn State University, Co Founder, Persea Naturals LLC

Trevor Zimmerman
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Blackhorn Ventures

Steven Zullo
Program Officer, NIBIB/NIH

Nubia Zuverza-Mena
Postdoctoral Scientist, the Analytical Chemistry Department , Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (CAES)

2018 Sponsors and Partners

• SilverInstitute
• 3M
• AGC
• Arkema
• Ashland
• Boieng
• Carestream
• Corning
• Eastman
• Energizer
• GG
• Henkel
• Invista
• Locked Martin
• Magna
• Medtronic
• Owens Corning
• Reliance
• sobic
• Shell
• Sherwin-Williams
• United Technologies
• Australian National University
• CityU
• Cornel Center for Materials Research
• Fermilab
• Georgia
• The Hong Kong
• innovate
• invest in skane
• IOWA State University
• The University of Akron
• OHIO
• Oregon State University
• PennState
• RMIT
• Rowan University
• Sandia Nationals Laboraties
• Stanford
• Research Commercialization
• UV
• UCI
• UCLA
• UCSB
• UCRiverSide
• The University of Adelaide
• The University of Melbourne
• Tech Transfer University of Michigan
• University of Minnesota
• The University of Hong Kong