Keynote Speakers
Executive Director, The Fralin Life Sciences Institute
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Virginia Polytechnic and State University (Virginia Tech)
Prof. Rob McCarley currently serves as the Executive Director of The Fralin Life Sciences Institute at Virginia Tech. He has received more than $20 million in external research and educational funding. He holds 14 patents and applications, has published 100+ scientific peer-reviewed articles with over 7,500 citations, and delivered more than 90 invited seminars or talks.
He most recently served as the Barbara Womack Alumni Association Endowed Professor of Chemistry at Louisiana State University, where he led research on the chemistry of stimuli-responsive molecular systems, both in solution and on surfaces, and within living mammalian cells. He was previously a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin.
Prof. McCarley has mentored 13 postdoctoral researchers and 80+ students.
Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Prieto Battery
Professor, Department of Chemistry
Colorado State University
Prof. Amy Prieto is the founder and CTO of Prieto Battery, Inc. and is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a Cooperative Research Fellow supported by Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies. Her postdoctoral work was performed at Harvard University, where she was named one of the first L’Oréal USA for Women in Science Fellows.
In 2011 she was named the ExxonMobil Solid State Chemistry Faculty Fellow by the American Chemical Society, a Presidential Early Career Awardee for Scientists and Engineers, and won the Excellence in Storage Technology Commercialization Award from the Colorado Cleantech Industry Association. Her batteries are currently on display at the Smithsonian Institute, Lemelson Center in the “Places of Invention” exhibit.
Prof. Prieto has mentored 3 postdoctoral researchers and X students.