Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us a textHelmuth Martin Reisner, is Director, Defense Resolve Department, Ministry Of Defense, Republic Of Estonia ( https://www.kaitseministeerium.ee/en ), where he leads this department at the ministry focused specifically and dedicated to monitoring and improving the defense resolve of both reservists, as well as the general population. With a Master of Arts (Honors), in Politics, from University of Glasgow, as well as undergraduate studies in Political Science from Stockholm University and University of Copenhagen, Mr. Reisner has had a diverse range of experiences. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, Mr. Reisner served as both Deputy Coordinator of Foreign and Security Policy at Estonian Permanent Representation to the EU, and Chief of Staff / Policy Adviser to the Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT, with a focus on digitization and cybersecurity policy. Prior to his current role at the Ministry Of Defense, Republic Of Estonia, Mr. Reisner served NATO and EU Defense Policy Consultant, European Defense Policy Adviser, International Communications Adviser, in addition to being a squad leader in military service. Mr. Reisner also serves as a content adviser for the Tallinn Digital Summit (an annual event hosted by the Estonian Prime Minister that gathers together leaders of like-minded and digitally-advanced countries, international organizations, and the private sector to address the most pressing issues on our road toward a connected digital future) focusing on data and AI, cybersecurity, emerging technologies and digital public goods. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Antonio Tataranni, MD is Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Life Sciences of PepsiCo ( https://www.pepsico.com/docs/default-source/leadership-bio/drpietroantoniotatarannibiography.pdf?sfvrsn=aa4e9fe6_15 ). As Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tataranni oversees all aspects of the company's efforts to protect its global workforce, products, and communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. He also leads PepsiCo's Life Sciences strategy and the R&D Fellows Program as its Executive Sponsor. Dr. Tataranni joined PepsiCo in September, 2018 as the Senior Vice President of R&D Life Sciences, responsible for leading the development and execution of a nutrition and bio-sciences strategy in support of the company’s portfolio transformation and Pep+ agenda. Dr. Tataranni serves on the Boards of several for-profit and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining PepsiCo, Dr. Tataranni was Senior Vice President, Head of Global Medical Affairs, Diabetes & Cardiovascular Business Unit, in charge of medical strategy worldwide and operations for mature markets at Sanofi. Previous responsibilities within the group included the roles of Vice President Global Medical Affairs, Medical Director Europe, Vice President for the Metabolism Medical Unit in the US affiliate (2006-2008) and Medical Director for the Metabolism Franchise (2005-2006). Between 1999 and 2004 he was Head of the Obesity, Diabetes and Energy Metabolism Unit at the Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch of the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. and Director of the Clinical Research Center at the same institution from 2000 through 2004. Dr. Tataranni is an avid researcher who has published and lectured extensively at national and international meetings on obesity, diabetes, and their cardio metabolic complications. Professional awards presented to Dr. Tataranni include the NIH Fellowship Award for Research Excellence (FARE) in 1998 and the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NAASO)- Lilly Scientific Achievement Award in 2004. Dr. Tataranni is a native of Italy. He graduated from Catholic University School of Medicine in Rome in 1990 and went on to receive a specialty diploma in Endocrinology, Metabolic Diseases and Diabetes at this University. He has authored more than 100 original manuscripts, in addition to contributing to numerous review articles and book chapters. Support the show

Send us a textJohn Bencich is Chief Executive Officer, at Achieve Life Sciences ( https://ir.achievelifesciences.com/ ), a specialty pharmaceutical company committed to addressing the global smoking and nicotine addiction epidemic through the development and commercialization of the drug compound Cytisinicline. Mr. Bencich is an experienced financial executive who has spent over 20 years guiding financial and corporate strategy in the life sciences and technology industries. Before his appointment to Chief Executive Officer in 2020, he served as Achieve Life Sciences Chief Financial and Operating Officer. Prior to joining Achieve Life Sciences in 2017, Mr. Bencich served as CFO of OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded biotechnology company. Before joining OncoGenex in 2014, he served as CFO of Integrated Diagnostics and Allozyne, both private VC-backed companies. Earlier he served as the CFO and Treasurer of Trubion Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded biotechnology company where he helped complete the successful sale of the company to Emergent BioSolutions. Prior to his role at Trubion, he led the global financial operations for Onyx Software Corporation, a publicly traded software company through its sale to Battery Ventures. Mr. Bencich started his career at Ernst & Young LLP. He graduated from the University of San Diego with a BA in Accounting, earned his MBA from Seattle University and was a Certified Public Accountant in the state of Washington for 17 years. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Kathryn Huff, Ph.D. ( https://www.energy.gov/ne/person/dr-kathryn-huff ) is Assistant Secretary, Office of Nuclear Energy, U.S. Department of Energy, where she leads their strategic mission to advance nuclear energy science and technology to meet U.S. energy, environmental, and economic needs, both realizing the potential of advanced technology, and leveraging the unique role of the government in spurring innovation. Prior to her current role, Dr. Huff served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Secretary and also led the office as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy. Before joining the Department of Energy, Dr. Huff was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she led the Advanced Reactors and Fuel Cycles Research Group. She was also a Blue Waters Assistant Professor with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Dr. Huff was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow in both the Nuclear Science and Security Consortium and the Berkeley Institute for Data Science at the University of California - Berkeley. She received her PhD in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of Chicago. Her research focused on modeling and simulation of advanced nuclear reactors and fuel cycles. Dr. Huff is an active member of the American Nuclear Society, a past Chair of the Nuclear Nonproliferation and Policy Division as well as the Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division, and recipient of both the Young Member Excellence and Mary Jane Oestmann Professional Women's Achievement awards. Through leadership within Software Carpentry, SciPy, the Hacker Within, and the Journal of Open Source Software she also advocates for best practices in open, reproducible scientific computing. Dr. Huff's book "Effective Computation in Physics: Field Guide to Research with Python" can be found on all major book sellers. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Erwin Gianchandani, Ph.D. is Assistant Director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, U.S. National Science Foundation, leading the newly established TIP Directorate ( https://new.nsf.gov/tip/leadership ). The TIP Directorate is focused on harnessing the nation's vast and diverse talent pool to advance critical and emerging technologies, addressing pressing societal and economic challenges, and accelerating the translation of research results from lab to market and society, ultimately improving U.S. competitiveness, growing the U.S. economy and training a diverse workforce for future, high-wage jobs. Prior to becoming the Assistant Director for TIP, Dr. Gianchandani served as the senior advisor for Translation, Innovation and Partnerships, where he helped develop plans for the new TIP Directorate in collaboration with colleagues at NSF, other government agencies, industry, and academia. During the previous six years, Dr. Gianchandani was the NSF deputy assistant director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), twice serving as acting assistant director. His leadership and management of CISE included the formulation and implementation of the directorate's $1 billion annual budget, strategic and human capital planning, and oversight of day-to-day operations for a team of over 130. During this time, Dr. Gianchandani has led the development and launch of several new NSF initiatives, including the Smart & Connected Communities program, Civic Innovation Challenge, Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research, and the National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes. Before joining NSF in 2012, Dr. Gianchandani was the inaugural director of the Computing Community Consortium, providing leadership to the computing research community in identifying and pursuing bold, high-impact research directions such as health information technology and sustainable computing. Dr. Gianchandani holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia. In 2021, he received the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, awarded to members of the Federal Government’s Senior Executive Service for sustained extraordinary accomplishment. Support the show

Send us a textDr. S. Indu Rupassara, Ph.D., MBA is Co-Founder, President and CEO, of FruitVaccine ( http://www.fruitvaccine.org/ ), a company developing and manufacturing novel, safe and cost-effective fruit-based vaccines, with a goal of providing immunity against globally problematic infectious diseases. FruitVaccine's lead product is a vaccine which will immunize against the human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV), a disease that all humans, especially infants and the elderly, are susceptible to, which effects the lower respiratory system and which no vaccine is available. Dr. Rupassara leads FruitVaccine overseeing its organizational, business, and R&D growth and is the Principal Investigator of FruitVaccine’s NSF-SBIR Grant Award, and has presented talks in conferences in the US, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Dr. Rupassara’s multidisciplinary expertise includes biotechnology, immunology, and ‘omics’ technologies, using an array of biological systems such as humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms. Dr. Rupassara received her PhD (Metabolomics/Biotechnology), MBA, and MS (Biochemistry) degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA (UIUC), MSc (Microbiology) from the University of Sydney, Australia, and BSc (Agric. Sc.) from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. Support the show

Send us a textColonel Christopher Grice is the Acting Director, Joint Science and Technology Office, of the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency ( https://www.dtra.mil/ ), a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD), focused on countering weapons of mass destruction (WMD; chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and high explosives) and their mission enables DoD and the U.S. Government to prepare for and combat weapons of mass destruction and improvised threats, as well as to ensure nuclear deterrence. Previous to DTRA, Colonel Grice was Director of Materiel for the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Headquarters Department of the Army (HQDA), as well as Division Chief for the Full Dimension Protection division. Prior to those assignments, Colonel Grice commanded the 69th Chemical Company in Hanau, Germany, the Blue Grass Chemical Activity at Blue Grass Army Depot, Kentucky, and the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colorado. Colonel Grice's other key assignments included Instructor and Chief of Officer Training at the CBRN School, Battalion Executive Officer and Operations Officer for 110th Chemical Battalion at Joint Base Lewis McCord, Washington, Executive Assistant to the Director of the Joint Staff and Counter-proliferation Branch Chief for the Joint Staff, Senior Strategic Planner, U.S. Plans for United States Forces Korea. Colonel Grice's other operational and support deployments include Operation Joint Guardian in Kosovo as part of Task Force Falcon while the CBRN Officer for 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division and Operation Iraqi Freedom as the company commander of the 69th Chemical Company. A native of Galesburg, Illinois, Colonel Grice enlisted in the Army National Guard in 1989. He earned a Biological Sciences Degree from Southern Illinois University and a commission as a Chemical Officer in 1995. Colonel Grice also earned a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Management from Webster University in 2006 and a Master of Science Degree in Joint Campaign Planning and Strategy from the National Defense University (Joint Advanced Warfighting School) in 2015. Colonel Grice's awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit (with OLC), Bronze Star Medal, Defense Meritorious Service Medal (with OLC), Meritorious Service Medal (with OLC), Army Commendation Medal (with OLC), Army Achievement Medal (with OLC), Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Korean Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal, NCO Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (Numeral 2), NATO Medal, Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge, Army Staff Identification Badge, and the Senior Parachutist Badge. His foreign awards include the German Armed Forces Efficiency Badge. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Mang Shi, Ph.D. is a Professor at Sun Yat-sen University ( https://www.sysu.edu.cn/sysuen/ ) in Guangzhou, China, where his research is focused on the genomics of RNA viruses, and his work uses metagenomics and meta-transcriptomics tools for virus discovery and characterization, based on which he has helped re-define the diversity and evolutionary history of the RNA virosphere. Currently he is interested in using the same approaches to reveal the interesting interactions between virome, microbiome, and hosts within an infected individual. Prior to joining Sun Yat-sen University, Dr. Shi was a senior research associate at the University of Sydney. He was also an adjunct faculty at Shanghai Public Health Clinical Centre and before that, an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellow and Guest researcher at the U.S. CDC. Dr. Shi received his undergraduate degree in microbiology and Mphil degree in viral evolution from the University of Hong Kong, and his Ph.D. in virus evolution from the University of Sydney, with work also accomplished at Penn State. Mr. Keegan Li serves as Director for Alibaba Cloud Digital Medical Product / Solution team, a division of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence ( https://www.aliyun.com/ ), and prior to Alibaba has spent time in a range of research and business development roles at health-tech organizations including Philips, Synovate and Ali Health. Mr. Li studied Biology for his undergraduate degree at The University of Hong Kong, and did his Master work in Economics, firstly at University of Navarra in Spain, and later at London School of Economics and Political Science. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Pablo Garcia Tello, Ph.D. is Section Head, New Projects & Initiatives, at the EU Office Of CERN ( https://home.cern/ ), the European Organization for Nuclear Research, an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. As section head of the CERN EU Office he is responsible for developing new EU funded projects and initiatives ( https://ideasquare.cern/ ) and has also served as Knowledge Transfer (KT) Liaison Officer collaborating to enhance the KT CERN industrial network and relationships ( https://knowledgetransfer.web.cern.ch/ ). Dr. Tello graduated with a degree in Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain and has a Ph.D. in Material Science from the Basque Country University in San Sebastian, Spain. He was Postdoctoral Associate and Teaching Assistant of Semiconductor Processing Technology in the Department of Material Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, USA. Dr. Tello has worked at Philips and NXP Semiconductors in the areas of Micro/Nano-Electronics and Biotechnology. He has also served as a Contracts & Programs Manager at the Aerospace and Defense Industry Association of Europe, and has worked as a Consultant in EU Innovation Programs for PNO Consultants, for private and public sector organizations in the Chemical and ICT areas. Dr. Tello is also participating actively in EC Innovation Initiatives and Funding Programs. His expertise is certified by having published more than 50 scientific papers in top international peer reviewed journals and conferences, and holds more than 10 international patents in the areas of Micro/Nanotechnology and Biotechnology. He has received among others the NXP Semiconductors Golden Patent of the Year award. Support the show

Send us a textDr. Kyriacos M. Koupparis, Ph.D. is the Head of the Hunger Monitoring Unit at the United Nations World Food Program ( WFP - https://www.wfp.org/ ) where he leads a dynamic team of software engineers, data scientists, and food security analysts utilizing real-time data, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence to track food security globally, to support WFP’s fight against hunger. In his previous role at the WFP Innovation Accelerator ( https://innovation.wfp.org/ ), Dr. Koupparis led a team that explored how emerging technologies – such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and robotics – could be applied to catalyze impact within the context of humanitarian assistance and food security. Dr. Koupparis has devoted the last 15 years working at the nexus between science, technology, innovation and international development – first as a biomedical researcher working on drug discovery for neglected tropical diseases and further on in his career by pioneering innovation programs to advance human and planetary prosperity across the globe. He has worked in more than 20 countries throughout Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, Asia and sub-Saharan Africa through his various roles with the U.S. Department of State, USAID, and the United Nations. Dr. Koupparis holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California, San Francisco. He is a graduate of the Management of Technology program at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Wayne State University. Support the show