The Makers of Molecules - From Nanostructures to Quantum Materials: Innovations in Energy, Health, and Advanced Manufacturing

Dr. Guozhong Cao is the Boeing-Steiner Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. He earned his Ph.D. from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. Dr. Cao has published more than 770 peer-reviewed journal articles, authored or edited eight books, and holds 22 patents. He has been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher for 12 consecutive years, with over 80,000 citations and an h-index of 142. His widely adopted book, Nanostructures and Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Properties and Applications, has sold tens of thousands of copies and is used as a textbook or reference in hundreds of universities worldwide. The second edition has been translated into Russian, Korean, and Chinese.

Professor Hinds has a formal and research-based background in chemistry and electronic device processing. His bachelor studies were in Chemistry at Harvey Mudd College in California (1991). His Ph.D. work (1996) was on the MOCVD growth of high temperature superconductors at Northwestern University (Tobin Marks, NAE, NAS). He went on to post-doctoral research at NC State Physics to study the interface states in the Si/SiO2 system (Gerry Lucovsky). He then received an NSF-JSPS “Dramatic nano-fluidic properties of carbon nanotube membranes as a platform for protein channel mimetic pumps.” In 2001 he joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky to start a research program for functional materials at the nm-scale. In particular, his research group is trying to produce nano-scale materials that can mimic natural process for applications ranging from health care, energy storage/generation and water purification. In July 2014 he moved to University of Washington MSE department. He has received an NSF Early Career Award, Presidential Early Career Award, and a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellowship from the National Academy of Science.

Dr. Devin MacKenzie is the Washington Research Foundation Professor of Clean Energy and an Assoc. Prof. of Materials Science and Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at UW.  He is also the Technical Director of the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds, a lab that provides open-access to world-class advanced manufacturing and characterization tools for printed optoelectronics, sensors and energy device research and scale-up. Devin also has 25 years of entrepreneurial experience in sustainable materials and manufacturing of semiconductors, optoelectronics and energy devices. Prior to UW he was CEO and co-founder of printed battery company, Imprint Energy (acquired CCL/Avery), Previously, as the CTO of Add-Vision, Inc. (acquired Sumitomo Chemical), Dr. MacKenzie led R&D for roll-to-roll printed flexible OLEDs at Add-Vision with licensing in Europe and Asia. Prior to Add-Vision, he led printed silicon RF device and product engineering at Kovio, Inc. a Si Valley MIT spin-out. Dr. MacKenzie also co-founded, Plastic Logic, from Cambridge University as a postdoc and subsequently a visiting scientist in Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory. Prior to that he worked at Bell Labs and NASA.  Through his industrial and academic work, Devin has been directly responsible for over $100M in IP licensing, tech transfer and acquisitions. Dr. MacKenzie has authored over 240 publications and patents and has been cited over 13,003 times in fields ranging from organic electronics to quantum materials. He holds Ph.D, MS, and undergraduate degrees in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Florida and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.