I am honored by the opportunity to be a candidate for the 2025 MRS Board of Directors. The mission to advance interdisciplinary materials research and technology for improving the quality of life encapsulates far-reaching goals and deeply resonates as my own path has been shaped by a passion for enabling materials innovations for improving, so far, visual and interactive experiences in new electronic products.
I’ve spent the last 20 years in Silicon Valley, and have been fortunate to experience and contribute to multiple successful ventures built on materials innovations. It’s been formative to have seen first hand the power of combining interdisciplinary research, diverse teams inclusive of all levels of experience and individual backgrounds, within organizations truly nurturing excellence, entrepreneurial culture and empathetic leadership with a clarifying vision. It helped that these ventures were supercharged by $B level investments as they grew from early stages, and all these factors combined enabled accelerating breakthroughs through fast-paced problem solving of hard technology, manufacturing and commercial challenges. I share this to reinforce my strong belief in the critical role of Materials Science and Engineering (MS&E) for creating tomorrow’s technologies that can reach everyone to help live healthier, more productive, and in a safer environment we safeguard for future generations.
I would be honored to contribute my experience helping the MRS Board in its activities aimed at fulfilling the Society’s mission, strategic and DEI aspirations, at strengthening its values, and at new opportunities in the next 3 years. I am very passionate about connecting fundamental research in academia with the fast-track development enabled by industry for win-win-win benefits in (1) growing research infrastructure and our next generations of professionals, (2) growing new industries for “tomorrow’s technologies”, and (3) scaling to reach everyone with affordable, globally accessible technologies. The Society’s portfolio of meetings, exhibits, publications, and variety of programs across awards, DEI, advocacy and government relations create an effective framework I would strive to further amplify in operation and impact.
Serving on the MRS Board would also be a way to give back - MRS played a very important role in my development, having pivoted to MS&E for graduate school after realizing the beauty of designing material structures to enable new properties and functions. It was a steep learning curve coming from different undergraduate fields, and I was lucky to find the local MRS student chapter early on. Attending its seminars and later the MRS Boston Meetings allowed me to quickly ramp up learning about state of the art materials research and to meet others that helped me grow. Later, as president of the MIT MRS chapter, I myself sought to strengthen our materials community by bringing together students and faculty from across MS&E, ChemEng, Physics, EE, MechE and other departments, sharing intellectual curiosity and celebrating big and small discoveries. I’ve been amazed over the years how many technical challenges encountered during my industry journey had solutions connected to fundamental science work I recall from those years. These experiences, connections and opportunities opened by MRS left a lifelong mark I will forever cherish, and are reasons for which I’d be honored to have the opportunity to help the MRS Board of Directors in its mission for the global materials community.