Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textDr. Thomas Karr, PhD ( https://www.defense.gov/About/Biographies/Biography/Article/1808202/dr-thomas-j-karr/ ) is the Former Assistant Director, Directed Energy in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense (Research and Engineering), U.S. DoD. His responsibilities covered all Directed Energy research and development in the Department of Defense. Dr. Karr has four decades of experience in the application of science to national security. Prior to joining OUSD(R&E) he was a DARPA program manager for six years, where he created new programs for kinetic and non-kinetic effects, communication, information processing and exploitation, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. Dr. Karr was the Director of Innovative System Solutions at Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, Director of Electro-Optical/Infra-Red (EO/IR) Technology at Northrop Grumman, and was a Group Leader, Program Leader and senior scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for twelve years. He also co-founded a commercial space company, and consulted for many companies in the national security industry. Dr. Karr earned his A.B. cum laude in Physics from Princeton, his Ph.D. in Elementary Particle Physics from the University of Maryland, and was a Joliot-Curie Fellow of the Atomic Energy Commission of France. He has published over 50 scientific papers, serves on the Organizing Committees of three scientific conferences, holds three patents, and he is a Fellow of the Military Sensing Symposia (MSS), the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), and the Optical Society of America (OSA). Support the show

Send us a textDr. William Kapp, MD is Chief Executive Officer of Fountain Life ( https://fountainlife.com/about/ ), a company focused on transforming the current healthcare system into one that is both proactive and data-driven, enabling enhanced longevity and catching and treating illnesses earlier than ever before, focusing on the detection and reversal of asymptomatic diseases and advancing an entirely new healthcare paradigm. Dr. Kapp received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Georgia and his M.S. in Immunology and M.D. at the Medical College of Georgia, where he graduated with honors and was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honor society. He attended the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas for residency in Orthopaedic Surgery and completed his specialty training in 1994. Dr. Kapp is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon and a Fellow in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, has served on the Board of Directors of the Missouri Orthopaedic Association and has been chair of the Legislative Affairs Committee. Until 2005, he served as flight surgeon in the US Air Force Reserves with the rank of Major. Dr. Kapp is a dynamic entrepreneur who has founded several healthcare start-ups, ranging from surgical centers and hospitals to electronic health record systems and medical real estate developments. Previously Dr. Kapp served as Founder and Chairman of Landmark Hospitals, with several regional referral centers for critical care and medically complex patients requiring hospital-based post-acute care; managing partner and leader for Physicians Alliance Surgery Center, a multi-specialty outpatient surgical center; and managing partner for Orthopaedic Associates of SE Missouri, the region’s only orthopaedic center. Dr. Kapp is also a founding advisory board member of Missouri Physicians Mutual, a company focused on providing affordable medical malpractice insurance. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Melanie Egorin, Ph.D. ( https://www.hhs.gov/about/leadership/melanie-egorin.html ) is Assistant Secretary for Legislation (ASL), at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Dr. Egorin has a unique roll at HHS at the intersection of the executive and legislative branches of government, with responsibility for interacting with Congress and responding to various congressional oversight requests as it pertains to HHS role across its 12 operating divisions, which are responsible for administering a wide variety of health and human services programs to more than 100 million people. Dr. Egorin has had a 25 year career in the health policy domain and has recently served as Democratic Deputy Staff Director, Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives, where she was staff lead for Affordable Care Act, Medicare Advantage, dual-eligible beneficiaries, women’s health, and health tax issues. Prior to joining Ways and Means, Dr. Egorin worked for the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the University of California Office of the President, as well as teaching at San Francisco State University. Dr. Egorin holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Emory University, where she studied Sociology and Public Health, and a Ph.D. from the University of California San Francisco in Medical Sociology. Support the show

Send us a textRonald Tong is Senior Vice President of the Singapore Economic Development Board ( EDB - https://www.edb.gov.sg/ ) and Deputy Executive Director of the Office of Space Technology & Industry ( OSTIn - https://www.space.gov.sg/ ), Singapore’s national space office, where he leads teams of mission-driven Space champions to 1) develop and carry out Singapore’s national space strategy, 2) grow a vibrant and thriving Space industry and ecosystem, 3) promote research & development in Space technologies and translating them to commercial use 4) develop workforce and talent for Space, 5) shape international Space norms and build fruitful international relationships with public and private Space entities, and 6) create local legislation to govern Space activities. Mr. Tong has also been an officer and fighter pilot with over 1,000 flying hours on the F-16s. He joined the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) as a pilot trainee in 2003 and was subsequently awarded the President’s cum SAF Overseas Scholarship. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated (Summa cum Laude) with a Bachelors of Arts in Sociology and Economics in 2007. He also graduated from United States Air Command and Staff College in 2017 with a Master in Military Operational Art and Science, and in 2022 from Stanford Graduate School of Business with a Master of Science in Management for Experienced Leaders (MSx), also known as the Sloan Fellow program. Mr. Tong has held various command and staff appointments in the defense and diplomacy sectors. He has served Command tours at the Flight and Squadron levels with 145 Squadron, participating in various exercises such as Ex PITCH BLACK and Ex COPE TIGER, and supporting various high key Air Defense operations such as the Trump-Kim Summit. He held various staff appointments including Staff Officer (Fighter) and Head Force Development Branch (Covering) in Air Plans Department, where he oversaw the force structuring and long term strategic planning for the Air Force. He served as Director (International) in MINDEF Policy Office where he oversaw the bilateral defense relations between Singapore and the Americas, Europe, Middle East, South Asia, Commonwealth of Independent States, and Africa. He also served as Military Private Secretary to the Minister for Defense, and as Secretary to MINDEF HQ Meeting. Most recently, he served as the Group Head of Strategies and Plans in the Air Operations Department, where he oversaw current and future operations for the RSAF. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Calvin Roberts, M.D. is Program Manager at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) where manages for the Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts ( THEA - https://arpa-h.gov/research-and-funding/programs/thea ) program, which aims to transplant whole human eyes to restore vision in patients who are blind or visually impaired by reconnecting the nerves, muscles and blood vessels of whole donor eyes to the brain. Dr. Roberts joined ARPA-H in September 2023 from Lighthouse Guild International, where is the president and chief executive officer. Lighthouse Guild is a not-for-profit organization that provides programs and services to people who are blind or visually impaired. Previously, Dr. Roberts was the chief medical officer for the global eye care company Bausch + Lomb. For the past 40 years, Roberts has also served as a clinical professor of ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical Center. As a practicing ophthalmologist from 1982 to 2008, he performed more than 10,000 cataract surgeries, as well as 5,000 refractive and other corneal surgeries. He is credited with developing surgical therapies, over-the-counter products for vision care, prescription ocular therapeutics and innovative treatment regimens. He also holds patents on the wide-field specular microscope and has done extensive research on ophthalmic non-steroidals and post-operative cystoid macular edema. Dr. Roberts also hosts the podcast series “On Tech and Vision” ( https://lighthouseguild.org/technology/on-tech-and-vision-podcast/ ) – where innovators discuss how rapidly evolving assistive technology creates equity among those who are visually impaired. Dr. Roberts received his medical degree from Columbia University, completed an internship and ophthalmology residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital, and conducted cornea fellowships at Massachusetts Eye and Infirmary and the Schepens Eye Institute. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Kartik Sunagar, Ph.D. is Associate Professor and Group Leader of the Evolutionary Venomics Lab ( https://www.venomicslab.com/members ) at the Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science (IISC), where his team investigates venomous animals and their venoms as model systems to address basic but broad questions in evolutionary biology and genetics. Dr. Sunagar is an evolutionary geneticist, and a major focus of his research has been on innovating pan-India efficacious snakebite therapies through the discovery and development of broadly neutralizing antibodies. Dr. Sunagar’s Ph.D. (University of Porto, Portugal) and postdoctoral research (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel) provided fascinating insights into venom ecology and evolution, including the dynamics of venom evolution across large time, evolutionary origin and development of venom-producing cells, coevolutionary arms races, molecular mechanisms of venom action, the genetic basis of venom resistance, and the role of environmental and ecological factors in driving the evolution of venom. Support the show

Send us a textDialogues In Longevity - A discussion with Dr. Aubrey de Grey & Dr. Michael Rose about the past, present and future of longevity biotechnology Host - Ira S. Pastor Special thanks to longevity advocate Eric Schulke (https://ruliaderic.wordpress.com/) for helping to organize and coordinate the episode - Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D., is President & Chief Science Officer of the Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) Foundation ( https://www.levf.org/ ), an organization focused on proactively identifying and addressing the most challenging obstacles on the path to the widespread availability of genuinely effective treatments to prevent and reverse human age-related disease. Dr. de Grey is internationally recognized as a visionary biomedical gerontologist who devised the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence: a comprehensive set of methods to rejuvenate the human body, thereby preventing age-related ill health and mortality. He has co-founded multiple non-profit organizations – including Methuselah Foundation, SENS Research Foundation, and now LEV Foundation – to specifically enable and accelerate its development and clinical translation. Dr. de Grey received his BA in Computer Science and Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Cambridge in 1985 and 2000, respectively. He is the author of 'The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging', 'Ending Aging', and a large number of academic papers. Dr. de Grey is a Fellow of both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Aging Association, and sits on the advisory boards of numerous scientific journals and research organizations. He is a prolific speaker who regularly presents at conferences and events world-wide. Dr. Michael Rose, Ph.D. ( https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5261 ) is the Director of the Network for Experimental Research on Evolution (NERE), and Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine, where his main area of work over the years has been the evolution of aging. He received his PhD from the University of Sussex in 1978. In 1991, Dr. Rose published seminal work per his text 'Evolutionary Biology of Aging' exploring a view of the subject based on antagonistic pleiotropy, the hypothesis that aging is caused by genes that have two effects, one acting early in life and the other much later. The genes are favored by natural selection as a result of their early-life benefits, and the costs that accrue much later appear as incidental side-effects that we identify as aging. Dr. Rose’s laboratory has conducted the longest-running artificial selection experiment designed to test the theory of antagonistic pleiotropy using Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) bred for longevity by collecting eggs from the longest-lived flies in each generation. The experiment has run since 1981, and has produced flies with quadruple the original life span. In 1997, Dr. Rose was awarded the Busse Research Prize by the World Congress of Gerontology. He has authored 10 books, including 'The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging'. Support the show

Send us a textProfessor Nadeem Sarwar is Corporate Vice President, Co-Founder and Head, Transformational Prevention Unit, Novo Nordisk ( https://www.novonordisk.com/partnering-and-open-innovation/transformational-prevention-unit.html ), Co-Chair UK Dementia Mission (a UK Government Ministerial appointment) and Honorary Professor, University of Edinburgh Medical School. Professor Sarwar joined Novo Nordisk in June 2023 as Corporate Vice President, Co-Founder and Head of Novo Nordisk’s new Transformational Prevention Unit (TPU) whose mission is to increase obesity-free life years, so people live healthier and longer lives. To achieve this, the TPU is establishing an integrated ecosystem that will deliver science-first, empowering, and scalable commercial solutions that predict and pre-empt obesity and its consequences through innovative partnerships, with solutions intending to push the boundaries of what is possible with drugs, genomics, microbiome, digital health, and behavioral science. Professor Sarwar’s expertise stems from scientific and business models at the intersection of genomics, data sciences and digital technologies for therapeutic and health innovation and he utilizes this expertise to steer the strategy and implementation of the predictive and pre-emptive obesity solutions being developed by the TPU, spanning both R&D and commercial strategy. Professor Sarwar joins Novo Nordisk with extensive executive experience in academia (Cambridge, Edinburgh), pharma (Pfizer, Eisai, Novo Nordisk), biotech (Genetics Guided Demantia Discovery - G2D2), company incubation (Eisai Innovation Biolabs), and government (UK Dementia Mission). He has successfully built and led organizations across the UK, US, Japan, and Denmark; and contributed to delivery of therapeutics into clinical trials for cardiometabolic diseases, oncology, SLE, COVID-19 and neurodegeneration. Professor Sarwar’s research has been published in leading medical journals (eg, NEJM, Lancet, JAMA), presented at international meetings (eg, American Diabetes Association; World Dementia Council), and profiled by international media (eg, BBC, Forbes). He has provided expert insights for the UK Department of Health, the World Economic Forum, and the US National Academies of Sciences. Apart from his current position at Novo Nordisk, Professor Sarwar holds the position of Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. He also currently serves on the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Neuroscience and Mental Health Board, the UK MRC Prevention Task and Finish Group, the Health Data Industry Expert Sub-Group, and the UK Life Sciences Council. Professor Sarwar was born and raised in Aberdeen, Scotland. He trained in molecular and genetic epidemiology as a MRC scholar with Prof. John Danesh (Cambridge, UK). Reflecting his own journey, he is passionate about diversity and equality in science, and inspiring and mentoring the next generation of medicine makers. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Robert Kristovich, Ph.D. is Director of the Joint Science and Technology Office (JSTO), at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency ( DTRA - https://www.dtra.mil/ ), an integral component of the United States Chemical and Biological Defense Program (CBDP). As Director of DTRA JSTO, Dr. Kristovich leads an office of 200 professionals including eight divisions of scientists, researchers and administrative staff. He manages the execution of over US$505 million focused on transforming science and technology (S&T) to prepare for current and emerging chemical and biological (CB) threats to better protect the Joint Force, our allies, and the nation. Prior to assuming his current position, Dr. Kristovich served as Chief of the Threat Agent Sciences Division of the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command Chemical Biological Center (DEVCOM CBC). In that role, Dr. Kristovich directed a team of CBC experts who evaluate emerging chemical threats facing the Joint Force and the nation. Among his responsibilities, he headed the Forensic Analytical Center, one of only two U.S. laboratories accredited by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Dr. Kristovich previously served as a senior adviser to the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Chem Bio Defense, in providing a strategic vision for how the CBDP can use science and technology to help the warfighter win in a CB-contested environment. In 2022, Dr. Kristovich was appointed as the U.S. representative of the OPCW Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), providing science and technology guidance in overseeing the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) treaty. OPCW ( https://www.opcw.org/ ) is a global body of 193 member states, including the U.S., which seeks to eliminate the production and use of chemical weapons. The SAB is a consortium of 25 preeminent experts chosen from the state parties to the CWC treaty. It provides scientific advice and support to the Director General and the state parties regarding implementation of the treaty and deterrence of chemical weapons use. Dr. Kristovich received a B.S. in Chemistry from Fairmont State University, and a PhD in Chemistry from Ohio State University. Support the show

Send us a textSusan Ferensic is Assistant Director of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD) at FBI Headquarters where her unit leads the FBI’s efforts to mitigate threats from chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive weapons. The FBI or Federal Bureau of Investigation is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency (https://www.fbi.gov/). Ms. Ferensic most recently served as the special agent in charge of the Columbia Field Office in South Carolina. Ms. Ferensic joined the FBI in 1997 as a computer forensic examiner in the Laboratory Division and was selected for new agent training in 2000, and then as a new agent, she was assigned to investigate criminal and national security computer intrusion matters in the Washington Field Office. In 2007, Ms. Ferensic was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters, where she was a program manager for criminal computer intrusion investigations. She then transferred to the Albuquerque Field Office in New Mexico in 2009 to lead the cyber and technically trained agent squad, and later she served and supervised Albuquerque's Joint Terrorism Task Force which included oversight of WMD coordinators and bomb technicians. Ms. Ferensic was promoted in 2014 to special assistant to the executive assistant director of the Science and Technology Branch at FBI Headquarters, providing advice on broad program management and administrative matters. In 2016, she was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Criminal Branch of the Sacramento Field Office in California. In 2018, Ms. Ferensic became section chief of the Digital Forensics and Analytics Section in the Operational Technology Division at FBI Headquarters. The next year, she was promoted to chief of staff of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch at FBI Headquarters. She was named special agent in charge of the Columbia Field Office in 2020. Ms. Ferensic earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Maryland. Prior to working at the FBI, she was a computer scientist at the Department of Defense. Important Episode Links - Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) - https://www.ic3.gov/ FBI Electronic Tip Form - https://tips.fbi.gov/ Support the show