Karen L. Wooley
W. T. Doherty Welch Chair in Chemistry and a University Distinguished Professor, Texas A&M
CTO, Teysha Technologies; Co-Founder, Sugar Plastics
Karen L. Wooley is the W. T. Doherty‑Welch Chair in Chemistry and a University Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University, with appointments spanning Chemistry and Materials Science & Engineering. Her work focuses on degradable polymers derived from natural products, complex polymer assemblies, and well‑defined nanostructured materials; she also directs the Laboratory for Synthetic‑Biologic Interactions. Wooley is Chief Technology Officer at Teysha Technologies, where she helps advance renewable, degradable polymer platforms (including KarmaCane) aimed at replacing fossil-based plastics. She is also a co-founder of Sugar Plastics, LLC, developing methods to transform sugars into functional polymer materials designed with end-of-life degradation in mind.
Agricultural Waste-derived Safe and Sustainable Chemicals & Plastics: Enhanced chemical complexity and replacement of chemicals of concern
Karen L. Wooley
Texas A&M University, Department of Chemistry, College Station, TX 77842
A primary interest in the Wooley laboratory is the production of functional polymers from renewable sources that are capable of reverting to those natural products once their purpose has been served. Long-standing efforts have developed synthetic methodologies that transform sugars, amino acids and other natural products into well-defined polymer structures, while creating mechanisms for breakdown after their useful lifetime is complete, and providing for biological and environmental resorption of the degradation products. This presentation will highlight a transition from academic studies involving cyclic carbonate formation and ring-opening polymerization for a family of carbohydrates to utilization of carbohydrate regio- and stereochemistries to drive translational efforts for polycarbonates prepared from condensation polymerization of bifunctional alcoholic or phenolic monomers. Extending from a focus on carbohydrate-derived polycarbonates, most recent directions have included bisphenol A replacements more broadly.
Julie Zimmerman
Professor in the Chemical & Environmental Engineering and the School of the Environment; Vice Provost for Planetary Solutions; Deputy Director for Yale’s Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering, Yale University
Julie Zimmerman is Yale University’s inaugural Vice Provost for Planetary Solutions and holds joint faculty appointments in Chemical & Environmental Engineering and the School of the Environment. She serves as Deputy Director for Yale’s Center for Green Chemistry & Green Engineering, and her research focuses on innovations in sustainable technologies and the policies needed to advance them. Zimmerman is also Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science & Technology and previously worked as an engineer and program manager at the U.S. EPA Office of Research & Development.
Frank Gupton
Department Chair, Chemical and Life Science Engineering & Pharmaceutical Engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
CEO, co-founder | Medicines for All Institute
His 31-year industry career included senior positions with the Hoechst-Celanese Corporation and Boehringer-Ingelheim. In 2007, Gupton retired as executive director of process development for Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.
Gupton then joined the VCU College of Engineering faculty and became the Floyd D. Gottwald Junior Chair in Pharmaceutical Engineering in 2016. His research focuses on improving global health care by making pharmaceutical production cleaner and more cost-effective. To help advance these goals, he founded the Medicines for All Institute (M4ALL) with a simple idea: expand global access to lifesaving medications by producing them more efficiently.
An inventor on multiple patents, including one for his work to produce nanoparticle catalysts supported on graphene, Gupton is a National Academy of Inventors Fellow. He received the Billy R. Martin Award for Innovation in 2017.
For his efforts with M4ALL to develop cost-saving methods to produce the anti-HIV drug nevirapine, he won the 2019 Peter J. Dunn Award from the American Chemical Society (ACS). For that work, he and M4ALL chief technology officer D. Tyler McQuade, Ph.D., also won the 2018 ACS Green Chemistry Challenge Award and the 2018 ACS Award for Affordable Green Chemistry. The institute is working with a manufacturer in South Africa and partnering with the government of Ivory Coast to bring these advances to the places they are most needed.
Katherine Hofmann, PhD, joined Eastman in 2012 as part of the Polymers Technology Division, working in front-end research, product development, and applications development. During this time, she helped launch Tritan Renew, Eastman’s first molecularly recycled material, and leveraged her expertise in ISCC+ certification to assist customers across multiple industries in successfully achieving certification. In the summer of 2022, Katherine joined Eastman’s corporate sustainability team, supporting Eastman’s Plastics and Circular businesses, and rejoined the Plastics Business as their sustainability leader in late 2024. In her current role, Katherine uses her passion for sustainable plastics to drive sustainability efforts, including developing end-of-use for Eastman’s specialty materials, advancing reuse, and decarbonizing Eastman’s plastics portfolio, as well as developing strategy and embedding sustainability throughout the organization through training and education. Externally, Katherine represents Eastman in the US Plastics Pact, Kilmer Innovations in Packaging Sustainable End of Life, Sustainable Packaging Coalition, and the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council, where she chairs the executive committee and co-leads a project to develop an economically viable and scalable healthcare recycling program in Houston. Katherine enjoys engaging with customers across all market segments to help meet their sustainability needs and advance the adoption of molecular recycling technologies. In 2024, Katherine was honored by Plastics News as a Notable Leader in Sustainability.
Jeffrey Whitford is Vice President of the award-winning Sustainability & Social Business Innovation function at the Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, which operates in the U.S. and Canada as MilliporeSigma. In his role, Jeffrey leads with purpose and imagination, embedding sustainability across every part of the global Life Science business. From product design and packaging to supply chain, manufacturing, and social impact, his work helps drive new business models, operational resiliency, margin expansion, and cost efficiency. Jeffrey has been the driving force behind several industry-first innovations, including the award-winning DOZN™ tool for quantifying the ‘greenness’ of a chemical product, a Biopharma Recycling Program for single-use and disposable plastics, and the new bio-based solvent line Cyrene™. He also spearheaded the SCALE, SHAPE, SMASH, and SHIFT frameworks to embed sustainability throughout the product lifecycle, operationalize circular packaging, and close the loop on lab plastics.
Jeffrey serves on the boards of the American Chemical Society’s Green Chemistry Institute and My Green Lab, and is a member of the Economist Impact CSO Leaders Club and Fast Company Executive Board. His accolades include being named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business and a Sustainability Hero of the Year by the Business Intelligence Group. Jeffrey holds a bachelor’s in journalism and strategic communications from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.
Megan is from a small town in Carroll County, Maryland, and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She received her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience from Northeastern University and her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Southern California, where her research focused on identifying mechanisms of plasticity in sensory systems. Upon graduating, Megan worked for a STEM education nonprofit for several years before taking on a role in an atmospheric chemistry lab at UC Berkeley.
Now Megan serves as the Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Green Chemistry at UC Berkeley, where she leads interdisciplinary programs to identify and encourage the adoption of safer alternatives to hazardous chemicals in products and processes. This includes co-instructing an industry-partnered, project-based graduate course, Greener Solutions, and in 2023 launching a new undergraduate course modeled after the flagship graduate course. She also manages the center’s key initiatives, such as a new research center and the Greener Partnerships internship program, which provide students with hands-on experience in green chemistry in industry settings.
Cindy Anderson (she/her/hers) is the founder and CEO of Alula Consulting. Cindy specializes in innovative sustainability-focused research and curriculum projects for academic institutions, non-profits, government, and corporations. Cindy has taught thousands of people through courses and workshops, around the world and online, in the fields of biology, sustainability, and biomimicry. She is honored to be a collaborative partner on the Engineering for One Planet (EOP) initiative since its inception, EOP Strategy Consultant with The Lemelson Foundation, co-author of the EOP Framework and EOP Framework companion teaching guides, and active EOP Network Member. Cindy holds a MS from Oregon State University, a MEd from Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), and a BSc in biology from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada).
Joel Tickner is a leading researcher and strategist in making chemistry safer for people and the environment. His research focuses on the development of innovative scientific methods and policies to implement and accelerate the design and application of safer products and manufacturing processes. He is also a leading expert on environmental health, green chemistry, chemicals policy, and pollution prevention.
Tickner is an internationally respected expert on how chemicals in everyday life can adversely affect adults and children, and based on that understanding, he has worked tirelessly to advocate for the adoption of safer alternatives in household products, manufacturing processes, and more. His research has led to the establishment and growth of the field of chemical alternatives assessment, the process of comparing alternatives for chemicals of concern. He is the founding Executive Director of the Association for the Advancement of Alternatives Assessment, a professional association dedicated to advancing the science, practice, and policy of alternatives assessment and informed substitution.
Tickner also founded the Change Chemistry (formerly the Green Chemistry and Commerce Council), a powerful network of more than 120 companies, bringing together the entire value chain from chemical producers to major brands and retailers. Change Chemistry occupies a unique role as a highly credible convener and facilitator of green chemistry commercialization, with access to leading-edge research and practice. It offers a tangible opportunity to influence and scale fundamental industry shifts, achieving significantly greater adoption of green chemistry.
Tickner is a professor of environmental health at University of Massachusetts Lowell, where he has worked to build interdisciplinary bridges across departments and colleges to position the university as a leading institution in the design and application of sustainable chemicals and materials. He is Co-Director of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute, which provides resources and tools to help businesses, municipalities, and communities in Massachusetts find safer alternatives to toxic chemicals.
David Laviska
Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry & Sustainability in Education, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
David A. Laviska is the Portfolio Manager for Green Chemistry and Sustainability in Education. Prior to joining the ACS Green Chemistry Institute®, he was an Assistant Professor at Seton Hall University where he is co-director of the Academy for Green Chemistry, Stewardship, and Sustainability. As a pedagogical innovator, he led the effort to incorporate the principles of Green Chemistry throughout the Organic and General Chemistry curricula and was recognized by the College of Arts and Sciences as “Professor of the Year” in 2020. As a first-generation college student and member of the LGBTQIA+ community, he took leading roles in working with undergraduate STEM students from across the spectrum of underrepresented groups. His research focuses on green(er) synthesis and characterization of late transition metal complexes with unique optical properties and hetero- and homogeneous catalysis. His research students also develop and pilot green(er) experimental protocols for use in undergraduate teaching labs. Prior to his second career in academia, Dr. Laviska worked for more than a decade as an Environmental/Analytical Specialist with the EPA (Region II) and earned degrees in chemistry from Rutgers University (Ph.D.), University of Washington (M.S.), and Cornell University (B.A.).