Louise Proud has more than 25 years of professional experience in environmental, health, and safety (EHS) roles, currently serving as Vice President of Global Environment, Health & Safety at Pfizer Inc. She has been instrumental in steering Pfizer toward ambitious environmental goals, including achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2040. Her leadership has fostered a culture of sustainability, integrating green chemistry principles across the pharmaceutical value chain to reduce waste, enhance efficiency, and minimize environmental impact. Previous positions at Pfizer include Senior Director roles overseeing Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) in various sectors, including R&D and commercial operations. Before joining Pfizer, Louise Proud worked as an Occupational Hygienist at the Institute of Occupational Medicine and as a Safety Engineer at NEC Semiconductors. Louise Proud holds a Master of Science in Occupational Hygiene from the University of Aberdeen and a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh.

Jakub Kostal is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the George Washington University, where his group develops computational methods for the design of safer and efficacious chemicals. At GWU, Dr. Kostal directs the MS Program in Environmental and Green Chemistry, which trains chemists in predictive toxicology, safer chemical and process design. Dr. Kostal is the recipient of the NSF CAREER and the PhRMA Foundation Research Awards, and has advised the White House OSTP and the Biden administration on sustainable chemical design as well as the American Chemical Society on the progress toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of “Zero Hunger”. Dr. Kostal is also the co-founder and principal at ToxFix, which has served the pharmaceutical and personal care industries for 10 years in reducing animal testing using the CADRE suite of predictive tools. He holds a PhD from Yale University (PhD ’12) in Theoretical and Biophysical Chemistry and a BA in Chemistry from Middlebury College (BA ’06).   

Jamie DeWitt is the Director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center (EHSC) and a faculty member in the Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology at Oregon State University. With over 20 years of experience in environmental toxicology, she leads interdisciplinary research at the intersection of immunotoxicology, neurotoxicology, and environmental health. 

Dr. DeWitt holds a Ph.D. in Environmental and Neural Science from Indiana University and completed postdoctoral training with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. EPA. Before joining OSU, she was a professor at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, where she led federally funded research on emerging contaminants and developed curriculum in toxicology and pharmacology. 

Her current research focuses on the physiological impacts of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), pharmaceutical pollutants, and other emerging contaminants. By integrating tools from developmental biology, immunology, and neuroscience, her lab aims to understand how these substances disrupt biological systems and to inform safer environmental practices. 

Carrie is a chemical oceanographer and analytical chemist working at the intersection of environmental analytical chemistry, environmental health engineering, and toxicology. She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2008 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Oceanography from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography (URI GSO) in 2017. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Colorado School of Mines, developing methods for nontarget analysis of per/polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in biological samples.

She uses cutting-edge environmental monitoring and analytical chemistry techniques to study the fate, transport, and biological effects of anthropogenic organic contaminants in aquatic environments. Broadly, she is interested in how the molecular structure and chemical properties of pollutants influence their fate in the environment, as well as their biological effects in aquatic organisms and humans.

Her overarching objective is to understand human and ecosystem health risks associated with organic contaminants in water and to identify particular compounds of concern that should be prioritized for remediation and toxicological investigation.  

Dr. Carla Ng is an Associate Professor and Fulton C. Noss Faculty Fellow in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, with secondary appointments in Environmental and Occupational Health and in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.  She received her PhD in Chemical & Biological Engineering from Northwestern University in 2008. Her research focuses on the development of computational and in vitro approaches to evaluate the fate and effects of legacy and emerging chemicals in organisms and ecosystems, with a particular focus on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Through interdisciplinary, cross-sector collaborations her group works to reduce the use of hazardous chemicals in products and processes to protect public and ecosystem health.

Paul T. Anastas is the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Professor in the Practice of Chemistry for the Environment. He has appointments in the School of the Environment, the Department of Chemistry, and the Department of Chemical Engineering. In addition, Prof. Anastas serves as the Director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale. Anastas took public service leave from Yale to serve as the Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Agency Science Advisor from 2009-2012. From 2004 -2006, Paul Anastas served as Director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute in Washington, D.C. He was previously the Assistant Director for the Environment in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he worked from 1999-2004. Trained as a synthetic organic chemist, Dr. Anastas received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University and worked as an industrial consultant. He is credited with establishing the field of green chemistry during his time working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the Chief of the Industrial Chemistry Branch and as the Director of the U.S. Green Chemistry Program. Dr. Anastas has published widely on topics of science through sustainability, including eleven books, such as Benign by Design, Designing Safer Polymers, Green Engineering, and his seminal work with co-author John Warner, Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice. 

Our mission at Newreka Green Synth Technologies is to revolutionize the chemical industry with sustainable and eco-friendly practices. As a Co-Founder and Director, leading the charge in Green Chemistry and Enviropreneurship, our team has successfully implemented over 500 plant-level batches using Newreka Reduction Technology in a diverse range of products. With an unwavering commitment to the environment, we have conducted over 40,000 experiments aimed at minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency in chemical processes.

The Industrial Green Chemistry World initiative, which I convene, illustrates our dedication to scaling Green Chemistry from laboratory to industry. It’s a platform where we have shaped a global dialogue on environmental innovation, showcasing how at-source changes can significantly green industrial processes. My role in fostering customer relationships, business development, and sales is complemented by a deep-seated belief in developing technology that betters our lives while conscientiously preserving the planet.

Peter Licence is Professor and Head of Chemistry at the University of Nottingham, where he is also inaugural  Director of the GlaxoSmithKline Carbon Neutral Laboratories for Sustainable Chemistry, a new-build facility focused on the delivery of sustainable chemistry solutions for the fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors. Pete is Director of the EPSRC CDT in Resilient Chemistry, which aims to train future leaders in molecular sciences aligned to achieving the goals of the UN-SDGs. A synthetic organic chemist by training, Licence offers experience in the design and preparation of ultra-high-purity functionalised ionic liquids that are bespoke for a specific task.  

The key driver of Licence’s research is the development of an in-depth knowledge of interactions and processes at interfaces and discontinuities.  Interfaces are crucial regions in most processes, spanning extraction, catalysis, and small molecule sensing. Licence is widely credited with the discovery of ionic liquids-based surface science and over the past 15 years has defined many of the methods used in the measurement, charge referencing, and fitting of XPS spectra of liquids-based samples.  Licence serves as Editor in Chief of the journal ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering. 

Adelina Voutchkova-Kostal is the Director of Sustainable Development at the American Chemical Society and leads the ACS Green Chemistry Institute®. Adelina joined the ACS from George Washington University, where her research program spans the two frontiers of green chemistry: the development of green synthetic methods through supported catalysis, and the development of predictive methods for identifying chemicals of toxicological concern. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award, the 2020 Early Career Researcher Award from GWU, and the 2021 Thieme Chemistry Journals Award, among others.

Adelina was previously a Research Associate and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. She completed her Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry at Yale with Bob Crabtree, focusing on atom-economical catalytic transformations facilitated by NHC complexes. She earned her BA from Middlebury College, where she worked with Prof. Sunhee Choi on the chemistry of Pt anticancer complexes.