10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Friday, July 21, 2023
Kannan Krishnan
Chief, Air & Site Assessment and Climate Indicators Branch
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)
Ph.D., Community Health, University of Montreal, Canada
Kannan Krishnan is currently Chief of the Air and Site Assessment and Climate Indicators Branch (ASACIB) of the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), a department within the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA).
Prior to joining OEHHA, he served as Chairman of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health & Vice-Dean of Research at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal, Canada; as the Chief Scientific Officer of an occupational health and safety research institute (IRSST) in Montreal, Canada; and as Senior vice-president of Risk Sciences International Inc., a consulting firm in Ottawa, Canada.
Kannan obtained his Ph.D. (Community health, specialization: Environmental Toxicology) from the University of Montreal, and completed his post-doctoral training at The Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences (Scitovation), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He is an American Board-certified toxicologist and Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
Kent McCormick
Founder & CEO
Photon Vault Inc
Ph.D., Physics, University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Kent McCormick is a physicist and business leader. Kent earned his PhD in physics from UC Berkeley after having majored in Math and physics at Rice University as an undergraduate.
Kent is currently the Founder, CEO and technology originator at Photon Vault Inc., a thermal energy storage company based in San Ramon, CA that aims to transform the grid-scale energy storage markets. Having launched the company in 2022 after more than three years of R&D, Photon Vault now has 9 full-time employees and 6 part-time employees that will transition to fulltime with additional funding. He has raised almost $3M to date for the company.
Prior to Photon Vault, Kent was co-Founder, President and CTO of Lattice Engines, a SAAS business that he and his partners built over 16 years before selling the company to Dun & Bradstreet in 2019. Lattice Engines commercialized an early AI software developed by Kent. He served in additional roles at McKinsey & Co. and EMC prior to founding Lattice Engines. Kent lives in San Ramon, CA with his wife and three daughters and is an avid skier and climber.
Karla Reyes
R&D Manager, Materials Chemistry Department
Sandia National Laboratories
Ph.D., Analytical Chemistry, Purdue University
Karla Reyes currently works at Sandia National Laboratories as R&D Manager for Materials Chemistry Department. Sandia National Laboratories is the nation’s premier science and engineering lab for national security and technology innovation, with teams of specialists focused on cutting-edge work in a broad array of areas. Dr. Reyes leads a group of Chemists, Material Scientists, and Chemical Engineers who provide science-based solutions to complex national security problems.
Dr. Reyes holds two bachelor’s degrees in Chemistry and Environmental Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, and a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Purdue University with thesis work in photoelectrochemical water splitting. After receiving her PhD in 2008, she joined the NSF Center for Chemical Innovation in Solar Fuels at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a postdoctoral fellow, where she continued her research in solar-to-hydrogen conversion.
Dr. Reyes’ career at Sandia began in 2010 as a staff scientist in the Materials Chemistry Department. She has led projects related to concentrated solar power, thermoelectric generator, electrochromic materials for smart windows, wastewater treatment, and Li-air batteries. She is a recognized subject matter expert in thermal-physical and electrical characterization of materials, aging and lifetime materials predictions, materials compatibility, renewable energy systems, supply chain risk and counterfeit detection.
In 2020, she completed a special assignment as acting manager in the internationally recognized Combustion Research Facility (CRF). Finally transitioning in 2021 to her current position as R&D Manager for the Material Chemistry Department. Her research has resulted in over 40 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 7 intellectual properties (with two issued patents) and over 700 citations of her work in the scientific community. She has participated in national scientific conferences (ACS, SWE, MRS and ECS) as session chair, active member and presenter. Also, she is a preferred reviewer for ACS journals and is currently a member of the ASTM in the Thermal Measurements Committee.
During her career, she has been recipient of multiple fellowships and awards including Society of Women Engineers FY23 Patent Recognition Award, Employee Recognition Award, Outstating Mentor Award, NNSA Defense Programs Award of Excellence, Postdoctoral Ford Foundation Diversity Fellowship and National Hispanic Scholar Recognition. She is also very proud of her mentoring and voluntary activities to engage young students and underrepresented groups in science and technology.
Lena Trotochaud
Staff Characterization Engineer
Twelve
Lena Trotochaud is a Staff Characterization Engineer at Twelve who currently works on understanding and mitigating failure mechanisms in electrochemical reactors. Prior to joining Twelve, Lena was a Research Scientist at Duke University, where she studied and developed new materials and processes for water treatment technologies. Lena earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Oregon, and she was a Postdoctoral Researcher at LBNL from 2014-2018. At LBNL, she used ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to better understand the chemistry of water and other common atmospheric gases on different surfaces. Lena is passionate about making education accessible to underserved communities and inspiring the next generation of scientists.