Materials Science & Engineering Advisory Board Members

Photo of Elizabeth DeStephensElizabeth DeStephensBlack Knight Energy, LLC

Elizabeth has over 20 years of experience in the energy industry and has served in a lead technical capacity for more than $10 billion of transactions and financings. She was previously Vice President – Reserves & Corporate Development and Vice President – Strategic Analytics at California Resources Corporation. Prior to CRC, she had progressive technical and commercial roles with Occidental Petroleum, Raymond James, Ryder Scott, ExxonMobil and General Electric.…

Photo of Bob HadbaBob HadbaAlcon Laboratories

Ahmad Robert “Bob” Hadba, Ph.D., MBA is a Senior Director of R&D Projects at Alcon Laboratories, Inc. Fort Worth, Texas. In this role, Bob is leading a cross-functional multi-site team charged with developing and clinically validating the performance of a new Modular Intraocular Lens Platform designed to optimize the refractive outcomes of post-cataract surgery patients.…

Photo of Diane HickeyDiane HickeyDiamond Chameleon Group
Photo of Marie KaneMarie KaneSandia National Laboratory

As the senior manager for Sandia’s Advanced and Exploratory (A&E) teams, Marie Kane provides leadership for her management team and strategy development and execution for the Advanced and Exploratory Systems Departments that support technology development and maturation for the Nuclear Deterrence (ND) mission. The A&E program at Sandia is responsible for developing next-generation weapon architectures that support anticipated adversarial threats and defend against technology surprises.…

Photo of Margaret KayoMargaret KayoScientific Affairs and Regulatory Affairs

Margaret has over 20 years of medical product experience in combination medical devices, medical devices and pharmaceutical products.  She currently runs a consulting business focusing on Scientific Affairs and Regulatory Affairs in the Combination Device, Medical Device, and Pharmaceutical industries.

Margaret holds an MBA from the University of California-Irvine, where she focused on strategy, and BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees from the University of Florida Materials Sciences and Engineering Department, with her dissertation research centered on drug delivery from and surface modification of implantable biomaterials.

Photo of Tyler LenziTyler LenziMicron Technology

Tyler Lenzi received a B.S. in Materials Science Engineering from Washington State University (Pullman, Washington USA) in 1995 and finished his M.S. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida, USA) in 1997.

Mr. Lenzi has over 23 years of semiconductor manufacturing experience. He currently manages the Yield Enhancement, Data Science, Process Control, Corporate TEM Lab, and Wafer Level Testing teams for technology development at Micron Technology Inc.…

Photo of Beth LewisBeth LewisWyman Gordon (Retired)

B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering, University of Florida, 1980

M.S. in Material Science & Engineering, WPI, 1994

Director of Technology Programs for Wyman Gordon (a PCC company)

Began her career in 1980 at Wyman Gordon and has held various technical roles. Works in Superalloy and Titanium Forging development with a focus on Nickle-based Superalloy powder metallurgy, production, forging and heat treatment for Aviation Markets.…

Photo of James MarottaJames MarottaAlcon Research, LLC.

Currently Senior Director of IOL Projects at Alcon Research, LLC., James Marotta has also held research and medical affairs positions at Novartis, Medtronic and Smith & Nephew.  Recipient of the Novartis 2018 VIVA Leading Science Award. More than 20 years of technical development knowledge and research experience with both medical devices and drug/device combination products.…

Photo of Steve McDanelsSteve McDanelsNASA (Retired)

Steve McDanels received his degree in Materials Science and Engineering, with a specialization in metallurgical engineering, from the University of Florida. His professional career began as a materials engineer performing failure analysis and crash investigations of navy and marine rotor-wing and fixed-wing aircraft. He also served as an adjunct professor of metallurgy at Pensacola Junior College.

Photo of Ananth NamanAnanth NamanCabot Microelectronics

Ananth Naman has served as our Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Cabot Microelectronics since January 2015. Previously, Dr. Naman was our Vice President of Research and Development since January 2011. Prior to that, Dr. Naman was our Director of Product Development starting in April 2009 and Director of Pads Technology from January 2006 through March 2009.…

Photo of Heather Ohm-RodriguezHeather Ohm-RodriguezJohnson & Johnson
Photo of Wally RhinesWally RhinesCornami, Inc.

WALDEN C. RHINES is President and CEO Emeritus of Cornami, Inc., a fabless software/semiconductor company focused on intelligent computing for fully homomorphic encryption and machine learning. He was previously CEO of Mentor Graphics for 25 years and Chairman of the Board for 17 years. During his tenure at Mentor, revenue nearly quadrupled and the market value of the company increased 10X.…

Photo of Iris SchumacherIris SchumacherKimberly-Clark Professional

Dr. Iris V. Schumacher is the R&D Manager for Global Product Development at Kimberly-Clark Professional.  She is responsible for the leadership of a global team that drives end-to-end innovation for the critical hygiene categories of skincare, wipers, and towel/bath tissue supporting the Kleenex®, Cottonelle®, Scott®, and WypAll® brands. Iris has an incredible passion for building exceptional teams by fostering a team culture that enables people to bring their best selves to their work and cultivates excitement to drive results. …

Photo of Deepika SinghDeepika SinghR&D Investment Holdings

Deepika Singh is the Founder and former CEO of Sinmat- a company specializing in novel planarization processes for the semiconductor chip industry.  These processes are currently being used by leading global companies in some of the fastest-growing markets involving the manufacturing of smartwatches, smartphones advanced silicon carbide and gallium nitride electronics for electric vehicles, 5G communications infrastructure and advanced defense electronics.…

Photo of James TaltonJames TaltonAlchem Corporation

James D. Talton, Ph.D., is the President and CEO of Alchem Laboratories Corporation. Prior to joining Alchem, Dr. Talton served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nanotherapeutics, Inc. for seventeen years. He also is President of Nanopharmaceutics, Inc., President of Discovery Cure Institute, Inc., a Florida non-profit Corporation and serves on the Alumni Advisory Board for the University of Florida Department of Materials Science & Engineering.…

Photo of Chris WidenhouseChris WidenhouseAtriCure, Inc.

Chris Widenhouse, Ph.D., was a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Materials Science & Engineering from 1990 through 2001.
Dr. Widenhouse graduated from the University of Florida with an M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering in 1996. He also holds a B.S. in MSE from North Carolina State University and an MBA from Pennsylvania State University.…

Photo of Michael ZamoraMichael ZamoraExxonMobil

Mike P. Zamora is Senior Vice President of ExxonMobil Chemical Company, located in Houston, Texas. In this position, he is responsible for the company’s future growth, integration with other parts of the corporation and oversees the Basic Chemicals and Catalyst & Licensing global business units.

Prior to his current position, Mike was Manufacturing Director, Americas, ExxonMobil Chemical Company, located in Houston.…