Dr. Catherine T. Hunt
CATHERINE T. “Katie” HUNT is the R&D Director for External Science & Technology at The Dow Chemical Company. In her inaugural role at Dow, as the Director of Technology Collaboration Development, Katie was an integral member of the DOW™ POWERHOUSE™ Solar Shingle team and she championed the RetroFIT PHILLY “Coolest Block” Contest. Another first, the “Coolest Block” Contest is a partnership focused on enabling the Mayor’s goal of making Philadelphia “the greenest city in America” while, at the same time, setting the standard for urban weatherization programs across America.
Dr. Hunt began her career as a senior scientist in analytical research at Rohm and Haas in 1984 after completing an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale University. During her 25 years at Rohm and Haas, Katie held positions of increasing responsibility, from research scientist to process chemist to plant laboratory manager to Director of their worldwide Analytical and Computational Competency Network (better known as ACNET) and ultimately, Corporate Sustainability Director and Leader for Technology Partnerships.
Katie holds an A.B. in Chemistry (Cum Laude) from Smith College and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Davis. She was the 2007 President of the American Chemical Society where she championed education, collaboration and innovation, especially related to the Sustainability of Energy, Food and Water.
Dr. Hunt serves on several advisory boards including: the MIT Visiting Committee for the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Rochester Institute of Technology National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Mayor Nutter’s Sustainability Advisory Board for the City of Philadelphia, and the National Academies Roundtable for the Science and Technology of Sustainability. Katie holds memberships with the American Chemical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Sigma Xi and the New York Academy of Science.
Over her professional career, Katie has received numerous awards; she was named one of the “Best 50 Women in Business” in Pennsylvania by Governor Rendell (2007), received the Smith Medal from her alma mater’s Board of Trustees (2008), was selected as the Outstanding Alumna from the University of California, Davis (2009), and was elected as a Fellow by the AAAS (2007) and, more recently, she was in the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society (2009).
In her spare time Katie enjoys yoga, bicycling with her family, judging science fairs and mentoring students.
Plenary address - Science for a Sustainable World: Education, Collaboration, Innovation!
Kellas 106, 6:00pm, Wednesday, June 2nd.
There has never been a better time to be a chemist or chemistry professional. Never before have we faced such enormous world challenges with regard to Energy, Food, and Water; and never before have we had such a direct impact on the quality of life on our planet.
Now is the time for us, all of us, to focus on what we do and do it not just more efficiently but more effectively, more productively. It’s about thinking holistically -- embracing the practice of systems thinking and life cycle assessment. It’s not just about conserving energy, food and water but it’s about producing products and processes that use less energy, food and water. And who better to address these looming issues than us?
This starts with education (just what is sustainability?); collaboration (working together and celebrating our successes) and innovation (recreating our cities, our communities and ourselves).
Come prepared to engage with colleagues and friends in the kickoff of NERM 2010!
