Tuesday, November 29
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Sheraton, 2nd Floor, Constitution B
Ashley White
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Francesca Toma
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Tatiana Vakhitova
ANSYS, Inc.
Mark Rossi
Clean Production Action
Many sustainability initiatives focus on the development of technologies that minimize carbon footprint and energy use. In this interactive workshop, you will learn to expand the definition of sustainability to include aspects that limit sustainable materials development, as opposed to sustainable technology development. These aspects include materials availability, reuse, recycling and recovery. Additional aspects include environmental and human health effects, such as carcinogenicity and acute water toxicity, which can be used to screen for safer materials selection choices both in research activities and in manufacturing and production. The workshop will entail various modes of learning including presentations, videos, team discussions, and direct data access to information sources that can facilitate sustainable materials development in your research activities. This workshop is appropriate for materials researchers of all career stages, including faculty and industry researchers and we encourage students and early career professionals to attend. Registration is required to participate in the workshop; space is limited.
Ashley White is the interim deputy for strategy and director of communications for the Advanced Light Source, a U.S. Dept. of Energy Office of Science synchrotron light source user facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In these roles, she draws on her background as a materials researcher and science policy advisor to inform science strategy and convey key accomplishments to current and potential facility users and the science research community, federal funders and policymakers, and the general public. Prior to joining Berkeley Lab, she served as an MRS/OSA Congressional Science & Engineering Fellow working in the office of U.S. Senator Al Franken and in the National Science Foundation’s Division of Materials Research as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow. She also previously managed the materials research program at the U.S. Green Building Council. She received a PhD in materials science from the University of Cambridge, and a BS and BA in materials science and engineering and music, respectively, from Virginia Tech. She is a past recipient of the MRS Woody White Service Award. White’s MRS volunteer activities include serving as a meeting chair for the upcoming 2023 MRS Spring Meeting, chairing the Focus on Sustainability subcommittee, and serving on the editorial advisory board of MRS Energy & Sustainability.
Francesca Toma is an expert in materials synthesis and characterization. In her career, she has worked with several classes of materials spanning energy research and nanomedicine. During her postdoctoral research at University of California Santa Barbara first, and Berkeley afterwards, she developed an interest in organic materials for photovoltaic and molecular electronics. With a very interdisciplinary background, at LBNL, she manages a portfolio of research activities that comprise the synthesis and advanced characterization of materials with tailored properties. In her career, and more intensively in these past six years at LBNL, she has been recognized world-wide for her contribution in (photo)electrocatalysis. In 2018, she was selected by the Royal Society of Chemistry as one of the “100 Women of Materials Science”.
Tatiana Vakhitova is a Manager of Academic Content development Team at engineering simulation software company - Ansys Ltd.. Tatiana is a doctoral graduate from University of Cambridge (Centre for Sustainable Development) with more than ten years’ experience in software development and education. Experience and knowledge in environmental and social impact assessment, sustainable development teaching, CSR, product management and business development. Tatiana has journal publications, she has delivered lectures and facilitated workshops at conferences and universities worldwide.
Mark Rossi has decades of experience creating solutions for safer chemicals and sustainable materials. Part of the CPA team since 2004, he began as Research Director and Co-Director, before rising to Executive Director in 2016. Mark is a member of the Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Act Advisory Committee and recipient of the US EPA Scientific and Technology Achievement Award, US EPA Region I’s Environmental Merit Award, and the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable’s P2 Ambassador Award.
He is a leader with the unique ability to bring together diverse groups and achieve innovative outcomes. Mark co-created GreenScreen® for Safer Chemicals, a globally-recognized chemical hazard assessment method used by governments and businesses in the electronics, apparel, and building sectors to identify safer alternatives to toxic chemicals.
Mark also co-founded the Chemical Footprint Project (CFP), a first-of-its-kind initiative to quantitatively measure chemical footprints, and allow manufacturers and retailers to benchmark and communicate their progress in chemicals management performance and in reducing potentially hazardous chemicals relative to industry peers.
Prior to joining CPA, Mark worked at the Tellus Institute, Massachusetts Toxics Use Reduction Institute, and Health Care Without Harm. His doctorate is in Environmental Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.