Discover our distinguished lineup of thought leaders and innovators across science, technology, engineering, arts, and humanities.
Welcome Valerie Sheares Ashby, President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), as part of the Keynote Speaker Series at NYU Ecosystem Hub
Theme: “What I Learned Along the Way: Mentorship, Values, and Leading in Challenging Times”
Valerie Sheares Ashby began as the sixth president of UMBC on August 1, 2022. The first woman to serve in this role, she also holds a faculty appointment in UMBC’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Sheares Ashby joined UMBC from Duke University, where she had served since 2015 as dean of the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. As dean, she led the development and implementation of strategic plans that resulted in significant new investments in faculty recruitment and development, philanthropy, and student engagement, and a realignment of operations that enhanced services and created operational efficiencies. Throughout, she consistently advanced diversity, equity, and inclusion as imperative to excellence in both teaching and research.
Prior to her tenure at Duke, Sheares Ashby chaired the chemistry department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) from 2012 to 2015. As a faculty member at UNC since 2003, she held numerous leadership positions and had experience at all levels of academic administration. She served on UNC’s Arts & Sciences Foundation Board of Directors and Research Advisory Council and chaired the university’s Institutional Conflict of Interest Committee and the College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Diversity Task Force. She engaged in all aspects of the undergraduate educational experience as director of undergraduate studies in the chemistry department, and she directed the UNC National Science Foundation Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate. Sheares Ashby was instrumental in UNC’s collaboration with UMBC to launch the Chancellor’s Science Scholars Program, which was among the earliest replication pilots by a research university of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program.
She began her academic career in 1996 as an assistant professor at Iowa State University and was promoted to associate professor in 2002. At Iowa State, Sheares Ashby served as a mentor for the Iowa State University Program for Women in Science & Engineering, a summer research program for undergraduate and high school students.
As a researcher, Sheares Ashby has focused on synthetic polymer chemistry, with an emphasis on designing and synthesizing materials for biomedical applications such as X-ray contrast agents and drug delivery materials. She is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Career Development Award, DuPont Young Faculty Award, and 3M Young Faculty Award, as well as numerous teaching and service awards, including the UNC Chapel Hill General Alumni Association Faculty Service Award and the Bowman and Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professorship for excellence in undergraduate teaching and research. In 2022, Women of Color Magazine named Sheares Ashby its Technologist of the Year.
She received her B.A. and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed postdoctoral research at Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz in Germany as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and NATO Postdoctoral Fellow.
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Keynote Speaker Series: Dr. Levi T. Thompson on “Making a Difference: Perspectives on Being a Change Agent”.
We are excited to welcome Dr. Levi T. Thompson, former Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Delaware and a distinguished educator, entrepreneur, author, and advocate for inclusivity and leadership, for a special Keynote Speaker Series talk. This event is organized in collaboration with the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department at NYU Tandon.
Theme: Making a Difference: Perspectives on Being a Change Agent
Abstract: As far back as I can remember, my goal has been to make a difference. Early in my career my focus was on improving student outcomes and advancing research. More recently, my focus has been on organizational change. This talk will start with a brief description of my journey. I will then discuss strategies that I have used to accomplish change for impact while holding informal and formal leadership positions. I will close with an overview of our research aimed at making base metals perform like noble metals in catalytic and energy storage applications.
Dr. Thompson is the Elizabeth Inez Kelley Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware. He earned his B.ChE. from the University of Delaware and M.S.E. degrees in Chemical Engineering and Nuclear Engineering, along with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan (UM). He served as Dean of the University of Delaware College of Engineering from 2018 to 2024. Prior to that, he was a faculty member at the University of Michigan, where he held roles as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, Director of the Hydrogen Energy Technology Laboratory, and Director of the Michigan-Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.
His scholarly research on nanostructured materials for catalytic and energy storage applications is documented in more than 150 publications and over 10 patents. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of AIChE, and a recipient of prestigious awards including the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, McBride Distinguished Lectureship, Union Carbide Innovation Recognition Award, and Michiganian of the Year Award for his contributions to research, entrepreneurship, and teaching. Dr. Thompson also co-founded T/J Technologies, a developer of nanomaterials for advanced batteries, which was later acquired by A123 Systems, and Inmatech, a company focused on low-cost, high-energy-density supercapacitors for automotive and military applications.
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Welcome Dr. Walter E. Massey to the NYU Ecosystem Hub Keynote Speaker Series
We are honored to welcome Dr. Walter E. Massey, a distinguished physicist, educator, and leader, for a special talk at the NYU Ecosystem Hub!
Dr. Walter E. Massey’s career has bridged the two cultures of the sciences and the arts, the private and public sectors, and academia and industry. He is currently chair of the Giant Magellan Telescope Organization, former Chair of the City Colleges of Chicago Trustees, president Emeritus of Morehouse College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Senior Advisor to the President and Emeritus trustee of the University of Chicago. Recent awards and honors include the Sigma Xi 2020 Gold Key Award and the National Science Foundation’s 2019 Vannevar Bush Award. His memoir In the Eye of the Storm: My Time as Chairman of Bank of America During the Country’s Worst Financial Crisis was published in 2020 by Beckham Publications.
Throughout his career, Dr. Massey has been dedicated to science and technology as necessary to sustain and improve quality of life, public understanding of science and technology as essential to democracy, the arts as vital to fostering creativity, and the intersections of science, technology and the arts as critical for innovation. From the beginning, he has been committed to strengthening the field and the country through racial and social equality by ensuring active inclusion, access to quality education, and mentorship for women and underrepresented minorities particularly in STEM fields.
Seminar Recording: Video
Keynote Speaker Series: Dr. Andrea Goldsmith on “Nurturing Innovation”
We are thrilled to invite you to a special Keynote Speaker Series talk featuring Dr. Andrea Goldsmith, Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University!
Bio: Andrea Goldsmith is the Dean of Engineering and Applied Science and the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Princeton University. She was previously the Stephen Harris Professor of Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where she is now Harris Professor Emerita. Her research interests are in information theory, communication theory, and machine learning, and their application to wireless and interconnected system design and analysis. She founded and served as Chief Technical Officer of Plume WiFi (formerly Accelera, Inc.) and of Quantenna (QTNA), Inc, and she serves on the Board of Directors for Intel (INTC), Medtronic (MDT), Crown Castle Inc (CCI), and the Marconi Society. She also served on the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Goldsmith is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received several awards for her research, education, and mentoring, including the Marconi Prize, the IEEE Mulligan Education Medal, the ACM Sigmobile Outstanding Contribution Award, the IEEE Sumner Technical Field Award, the ACM Athena Lecturer Award, the ComSoc Armstrong Technical Achievement Award, the Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award, the WICE Mentoring Award, and the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s Women of Influence Award. She has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and the Wireless Hall of Fame. Dr. Goldsmith is author of the book “Wireless Communications” and co-author of the books “MIMO Wireless Communications,” “Principles of Cognitive Radio,” and “Machine Learning and Wireless Communications,” all published by Cambridge University Press, as well as an inventor on 38 patents. She received a B.S. in engineering math as well as M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from U.C. Berkeley.
Seminar Recording: Video
Keynote Session: Featuring Dr. Jennifer Doudna
We are honored to welcome Dr. Jennifer Doudna for a special Keynote Speaker Series talk at NYU!
Topic: “CRISPR Biology and the Future of Genome Editing”
Fundamental research to understand how bacteria fight viral infections uncovered the function of CRISPR-Cas programmable proteins that detect and cut specific DNA or RNA sequences. CRISPR technology is now an indispensable tool in human, animal and agricultural research. Furthermore, the FDA’s approval of a CRISPR therapy for sickle cell disease marked the beginning of a new era in healthcare. Dr. Doudna will discuss the scientific and societal advances that will expand both the applications and impact of genome editing across the globe.
Bio: Dr. Jennifer Doudna is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and a Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her groundbreaking development of CRISPR-Cas9 as a genome-engineering technology, with collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, earned the two the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and forever changed the course of human and agricultural genomics research.
This powerful technology enables scientists to change DNA — the code of life — with a precision only dreamed of just a few years ago. Labs worldwide have re-directed the course of their research programs to incorporate this new tool, creating a CRISPR revolution with huge implications across biology and medicine.
In addition to her scientific achievements, Doudna is a leader in public discussion of the ethical implications of genome editing for human biology and societies, and advocates for thoughtful approaches to the development of policies around the safe use of CRISPR technology.
Doudna is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, senior investigator at Gladstone Institutes and the founder of the Innovative Genomics Institute. She co-founded and serves on the advisory panel of several companies that use CRISPR technology in unique ways.
She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Doudna is also a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and has received numerous other honors including the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2015), the Japan Prize (2016), Kavli Prize (2018), the LUI Che Woo Welfare Betterment Prize (2019) and the Wolf Prize in Medicine (2020). Doudna’s work led TIME magazine to recognize her as one of the “100 Most Influential People” in 2015 and a runner-up for “Person of the Year” in 2016. She is the co-author of A Crack in Creation, a personal account of her research and the societal and ethical implications of gene editing.
Inaugural Keynote Session: Featuring Dr. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli
We are honored to welcome Dr. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli for a special Inaugural Keynote Speaker Series talk at NYU Tandon School of Engineering!
Topic: “The Role of Universities in the Innovation Ecosystem”
Dr. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli will discuss how universities can drive innovation and develop companies from seed to multibillion-dollar enterprises, drawing on his 40 years of experience in the field. His talk will explore the essence of innovation, its origins in academic institutions, and practical lessons learned from his extensive career.
Bio: Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli is the Edgar L. and Harold H. Buttner Chair of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley and a member of BAIR (Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research) Lab. He is an author or coauthor of over 1000 papers, 17 books and 3 patents in design tools, cyber physical systems, and Artificial Intelligence. He is an IEEE and ACM Fellow, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
He is a co-founder of Cadence and Synopsys, two industry-leading companies in Electronic Design Automation, with a combined market capitalization exceeding $180 billion. He was a consultant or member of the Advisory Boards of several companies such as BMW, Mercedes, Magneti Marelli, Intel, ST microelectronics, HP, General Motors, United Technologies, Lutron, Lendlease and Elettronica. Currently, he is a member of the following boards of directors: Cadence, KPIT Technologies, eGap, Cy4Gate and Minerva CQ. He is Chairman of the Board of Quantum Motion, Innatera, Phoelex, e4Life, Exein and Phononic Vibes.
From February 2010 to December 2020, he had been a member of the Executive Committee of the Italian Institute of Technology, where he is now a member of the Technical Scientific Committee. In September 2023, he was appointed President of Chips.it, the 250MEuro Foundation of the Italian Government to foster integrated circuit design. He is the Chairperson of the Strategy Board and of the International advisory Board of the Milano Innovation District (MIND). He is the Chairperson of the Berkeley SkyDeck Accelerator Academic Advisors and is the special advisor of the Dean of Engineering, Berkeley, for entrepreneurship.
Alberto is the recipient of several academic honors (Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award, SRC Aristotle Award, the IEEE Leon Kirchmeyer Graduate Teaching award), and research awards (the IEEE Darlington Award for best paper bridging theory and applications, the IEEE Guillemin-Cauer Award, the EDAA Lifetime Accomplishment Award, the IEEE CEDA Kaufman Award for pioneering contributions to EDA) including the IEEE/RSE James Clerk Maxwell Medal “for groundbreaking contributions that have had an exceptional impact on the development of electronics and electrical engineering or related fields” and the 2023 BBVA Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Information and Communication Technologies category: “for transforming chip design from a handcrafted process to the automated industry that power today’s electronic devices”.
Alberto obtained an electrical engineering and computer science degree (“Dottore in Ingegneria”) summa cum laude from the Politecnico di Milano, Italy in 1971 and holds four Honorary Doctorates from University of Aalborg, KTH, AGH and University of Rome, Tor Vergata.