Drs. Maria DeRosa and Khara Grieger will be featured as Keynote Speakers at this GRC Connects titled "Convergence of Nanotechnology with Food & Agriculture." This free event is open to all members of the scientific community and scientists of all career-stages are encouraged to attend. Dr. Julie M. Goddard, Cornell University, and Dr. Ying Wang, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will moderate the discussion.
Dr. DeRosa, Professor & Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Carleton University will present research from her Laboratory for Aptamer Discovery and Development of Emerging Research around nano-enabled diagnostic and delivery devices.
Dr. Grieger, Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist in the Department of Applied Ecology at North Carolina State University, will present research on stakeholder perceptions and responsible innovation in nanotechnology in food & agriculture.
Please join us for an engaging and informative presentation followed by a Q&A period and networking with these innovative scientists. We look forward to seeing you at the frontiers of science!
Program
1:45pm Event Arrival & Networking
2:00pm First Keynote Speaker
2:30pm Second Keynote Speaker
3:00pm Networking
Open networking will be available until the event closes at 4:00pm.
About the Speakers
Dr. Khara Grieger is an Assistant Professor in Environmental Health & Risk Assessment at North Carolina State University. She currently serves as the Project Director of a USDA/NIFA-funded grant that investigates the societal implications of nanomaterials used in food and agriculture sectors. She also serves as an external advisory board member for a European project focused on risk governance (RiskGONE), is the US Co-Chair for a US-EU Risk Management & Control Community of Research focused on nanomaterial risks, and a member of the NSF-funded Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network (RTNN) housed at NC State University. She has received a number of awards in recent years, including the RTNN collaborative award (2018), Environmental Science: Nano HOT paper selection award (2018), the American Society of Civil Engineers State-of-the-Art Civil Engineering Award (2017), among others. Before joining the team at NC State, Dr. Grieger served as Senior Environmental Research Scientist at RTI International in the Health and Environmental Risk Analysis program (2012-2019), a Duke University Scholar (2017-2018), and Adjunct Professor at Meredith College (2014). She received a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, specializing in environmental risk assessments of nanomaterials. She also holds a MSc in Environmental Engineering (Technical University of Denmark), MS in Plant Biology and Ecology (Michigan State University), and BS in Zoology (Michigan State University).
Dr. Maria DeRosa is Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Her research examines a family of synthetic nucleic acids known as aptamers that can fold into 3D nanoscale structures capable of binding tightly to a specific molecular target. Her group is focused on developing a better understanding of how these systems work and using this information to design useful nanotechnology, such as biosensors, components for nanomedicine, or smart delivery devices. This research takes place in the LADDER (Laboratory for Aptamer Discovery and Development of Emerging Research), a facility funded jointly by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Leaders Opportunity Fund and the Ontario Research Fund. Dr. DeRosa received her BSc and PhD in Chemistry from Carleton University in 1999 and 2003, respectively, and was awarded an Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship to do research at the California Institute of Technology from 2004-2005. In 2005, she returned to Carleton as a faculty member in the Chemistry Department and the Institute of Biochemistry. She was a recipient of the John Charles Polanyi Research Award for new researchers in 2006, an Ontario Early Researcher Award in 2010, and a Capital Educators Award in 2015.
GRC Connects is an initiative of the Gordon Research Conferences that provides opportunities for GRC communities to connect and collaborate until we resume in-person meetings, furthering GRC's commitment to find new and creative ways to advance the frontiers of science.
