Progress, Potential, and Possibilities Podcast / Show

Send us Fan MailColonel (ret) Dr. Samantha "Combo" Weeks, Ph.D. is the Science & Research Director, of the Polaris Dawn Program (https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/), a planned private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, planned to launch using the Crew Dragon capsule. Polaris Dawn is the first of three planned missions in the Polaris Program (https://polarisprogram.com/), which endeavors to rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities by demonstrating new technologies and conducting extensive scientific research to expand our knowledge of humans adapting, living and working in space. Much of this research also has purpose and applicability to improve life here on Earth. Colonel Dr. Weeks, is a retired United States Air Force Colonel, with over 2,200 hours flying the F-15C, F-16, and T-38, including 105 combat hours. She commanded at the squadron, group, and wing level in the Air Force, and today also serves a corporate Vice President at the Shift4 Payments company, focusing on transformation and change management. Her position as Science & Research Director with Polaris comes after two and a half decades of focus on human performance in aviation. Colonel Dr. Weeks has a BS in Biology from the United States Air Force Academy, a Masters in Human Relations from University of Oklahoma, and a Ph.D. in Military Strategy / Leadership from the United States Air Force, Air University.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Emilio A. Emini, Ph.D. is the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute (https://www.gatesmri.org/), a non-profit organization dedicated to the development and effective use of novel biomedical interventions addressing substantial global health concerns, for which investment incentives are limited, and he leads the Institute’s research and development of novel products and interventions for diseases disproportionately impacting the world’s most vulnerable populations. Before joining the Gates MRI, Dr. Emini served as director of the HIV and Tuberculosis program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led the foundation’s efforts focused on accelerating the reduction in the incidence of HIV and TB in high-burden geographies, with the goal of achieving sustained epidemic control. Over the course of his previous 30-year career in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Emini led teams involved in the research and development of novel anti-infectives and vaccines. From 1983 to 2004, he led research at the Merck Research Laboratories involved in the development of one of the first highly active anti-retroviral therapies for HIV and, as senior vice president of vaccine research, the successful development of a number of vaccines including vaccines for human papillomavirus and rotavirus. Dr. Emini later served as senior vice president of vaccine development at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. From 2005 to 2015, he was senior vice president of vaccine R&D at Pfizer Inc., leading the development of Prevnar 13® for prevention of pneumococcal disease. Dr. Emini was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Weill Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 2006. He is a former trustee of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a former member of the National Preparedness & Response Science Board, an advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, International Society for Vaccines, and The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology, Genetics, and Biochemistry from the Weill Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences.Support the show

Send us Fan MailAkshay Talati, RPh, is Vice President Of Product Development, Research & Innovation, Regulatory, at the Beauty and Wellness Division of Goop (https://goop.com/), a wellness and lifestyle brand and company, founded by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, where he leads new product development and innovation for the company’s wellness and lifestyle brands. Initially trained as a Pharmacist, and then achieving a M.S. in Industrial Pharmacy at Long Island University, Akshay is a thought leader with an established track record of over two decades in cosmetics, dermatological and pharmaceutical product development, for 20+ distinct brands, for three of the largest multinationals including Estée Lauder (as Executive Director of Research & Development, Clinique), Unilever (as Vice President – Research and Development / Product Development - Murad / Unilever Prestige), and L’Oréal (as Vice President Research and Innovation, Head of Skincare). Over his career, Akshay has championed innovation for hundreds of products cumulatively valued in billions of dollars. He also serves and advises in several cosmetic societies and strives to positively influence those who seek guidance through mentoring. Akshay serves as a founding member of Skindie (https://skindie.co), a consulting firm generating authentic beauty intelligence and trends.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Gaurav Bansal, Ph.D. is Senior Manager, Computer Vision and Machine Learning at Blue River Technology (https://bluerivertechnology.com/), a company of innovators focused on driving radical change in agriculture by creating intelligent machinery, to empower their customers – farmers – to implement more sustainable solutions, optimize chemical usage, re-imagine routine processes, and improve farming yields. In 2017, Blue River was acquired, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of, John Deere (https://www.deere.com/en/index.html), a leading American corporation that manufactures agricultural machinery, heavy equipment, forestry machinery, diesel engines, drive trains used in heavy equipment, and lawn care equipment. Dr. Bansal has a PhD in Statistical Signal Processing, Optimization and Machine Learning, from The University of British Columbia, and a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Technology. He has been with the Blue River organization for about 2 1/2 years. Prior to Blue River, Dr. Bansal has spent time as a researcher at various organizations including Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America Inc., Toyota InfoTechnology USA, and Acubed; the Silicon Valley innovation center of Airbus.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Adam Wolfberg, MD, MPH, is the Chief Medical Officer at Current Health (https://currenthealth.com/), a Best Buy Health company (https://healthcare.bestbuy.com/) and part of the American multinational consumer electronics retailer. Current Health is an organization that enables the delivery of healthcare services in the home to enable healthcare organizations to deliver high-quality, patient-centric care at a lower cost. The company integrates patient-reported data with data from biosensors – including their own continuous monitoring wearable devices – to provide healthcare organizations with actionable, real-time insights into the patient’s condition. Leveraging clinical algorithms that can be tailored to the individual patient, Current Health identifies when a patient needs clinical attention, allowing organizations to manage patient care remotely or coordinate in-home care via integrated service partners. The Current Health platform brings together tele-health capabilities, patient engagement tools, and in-home connectivity to provide a single solution to manage all care in the home. Dr. Wolfberg also leads implementation and account management at the organization. Previously, Dr Wolfberg worked in medical affairs at Ovia Health, a leading maternity and family benefits solution for employers and health plans (which was acquired by LabCorp), athenahealth (network-enabled services, mobile apps, and data-driven insights to hospitals and medical organizations) and Ariosa Diagnostics. Dr. Wolfberg trained in OB/GYN and maternal-fetal medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and has an MPH from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Before going to medical school, Dr. Wolfberg was a print journalist. He blogs at www.adamwolfberg.com, and has written for magazines and websites including the Boston Globe Magazine, Slate.com, Huffington Post, and WSJ.com. His first book, Fragile Beginnings : Discoveries and Triumphs in the Newborn ICU, was published by Beacon Press in 2012.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Betilde Muñoz-Pogossian, Ph.D. is Director of the Department of Social Inclusion at the Organization of American States (https://www.oas.org/en/). For more than 15 years, she has led missions, programs, and projects and conducted research on issues of democracy and elections, and equity and social inclusion, among others. At the Department of Social Inclusion, Dr. Muñoz-Pogossian leads work on the inclusion of populations in vulnerable situations and on the promotion of the full exercise of their human rights. Among her responsibilities, she directs work on migration and refugees in support of the OAS Secretary General and the Member States. Born in Venezuela, Dr. Muñoz-Pogossian holds a PhD in political science from Florida International University, Miami, and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of South Florida, Tampa. She is the author of various academic publications and opinion columns on issues of democracy, human rights, migration and refugees, gender equity and social inclusion, among other topics. The Organization of American States is an international organization that was founded on April 30th, 1948 for the purposes of solidarity and co-operation among its member states within the Americas. Headquartered in the US capital, Washington, D.C., the OAS has 34 members, which are independent states in the Americas.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Lamya Abdulaziz AlOmair, Ph.D. is the Head of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and Bioinformatics, at King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (https://kaimrc.ksau-hs.edu.sa/), and an affiliated faculty member in the systems biology group at George Mason University. Dr. AlOmair is one of the first Saudi women to obtain a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science, from King Saud University, following which she joined the Saudi National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA) initially as a Programmer and Database Specialist, and was later promoted to Database Administrator and Manager of Human Resource Management System, working on trending topics such as Big Data, and related initiatives and projects. She then decided to further her career in the newly emerging field of Health Informatics when she obtained a Master degree in Health Informatics from King Saud Bin Abdul-Aziz University for Health Sciences in 2007. Dr. AlOmair then applied her skills to many I.T. projects at the NGHA and even participated in a few national initiatives in the field of Health Informatics. Her initiatives lead her towards more advanced field of computational Bioinformatics. At this point she decided to focus more on this promising new field. In 2017, Dr. AlOmair earned her PhD in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology from George Mason University, USA. In recent years, Dr. AlOmair has been examining the rapidly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), exploring its current and potential applications in healthcare sectors. She organized, with passion, a successful A.I. & Bioinformatics symposium in April 2021 to increase awareness and improve skill in AI among young professionals. Dr. AlOmair is an active supporter and enabler in the fields of both A.I. and Big Data, and regularly utilizes her exposure to healthcare officials and healthcare projects, both locally and internationally, to promote their advancements and implementations.Support the show

Send us Fan MailAlistair Fulton (https://www.semtech.com/company/executive-leadership/alistair-fulton) is the Vice President and General Manager of Semtech's Wireless and Sensing Products Group. Semtech Corporation is a supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms for consumer, enterprise computing, communications and industrial end-markets. It has 32 locations in 15 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia. Semtech is the developer of LoRa, a long-range networking initiative for the Internet of Things. As of March 2021, over 178 million devices use LoRa worldwide. LoRa has been used in satellites, tracking of animals, and natural disaster prediction. Mr. Fulton joined Semtech in 2018 with over 25 years of experience in the Internet of Things (IoT), connected devices, machine to machine (M2M)/embedded, and analytics spaces. Before joining Semtech, Mr. Fulton led the development of Hitachi's Lumada Industrial IoT Platform, the leading "visionary" IIoT platform in Gartner's 2018 magic quadrant. Prior to Hitachi, he led Microsoft's early IoT initiatives, including the development and incubation of Microsoft's v1.0 IoT platform (the precursor to the v3.0 Azure IoT platform). Mr. Fulton also served as a Leader within Deloitte Consulting's Strategy & Operations / Telecommunications Media and Technology practice, focused on new product development, innovation and strategic transformation engagements in the wireless & Internet of Things (IoT) sectors. He started his career at Telefónica UK.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. David K. C. Cooper, MA, PhD, MD, MS, DSc (Med), FRCS, FACS, FACC, FAST, (https://researchers.mgh.harvard.edu/profile/27073950/David-Cooper) is a pioneering heart transplant surgeon and researcher in the field of xenotransplantation, which is defined as any procedure that involves the transplantation, implantation or infusion into a human recipient of live cells, tissues, or organs from a nonhuman animal source. Dr. Cooper studied medicine in the UK at Guy’s Hospital Medical School (now part of King’s College London), and trained in general and cardiothoracic surgery in Cambridge and London. Between 1972 and 1980, Dr. Cooper was a Fellow and Director of Studies in Medical Sciences at Magdalene College, Cambridge. In 1980 he took up an appointment in cardiac surgery at the University of Cape Town where, under Professor Christiaan Barnard, he had responsibility for patients undergoing heart transplantation. In 1987, Dr. Cooper relocated to the Oklahoma Transplantation Institute in the USA where he continued to work in both the clinical and research fields. After 17 years as a surgeon-scientist, he decided to concentrate on research, initially at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, subsequently at the University of Pittsburgh, and then at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where his major interest was in developing cross-species transplantation with the aim of using pigs as sources of organs, cells, and corneas for transplantation in humans. He currently continues his research programs at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Cooper has published almost 1,000 medical and scientific papers and chapters, has authored or edited 18 books, has given more than 350 invited presentations worldwide, and has received several awards for his work.Support the show

Send us Fan MailDr. Kevin Perrott, Ph.D. is Founder and CEO, OpenCures (https://opencures.org/), Adjunct Professor, University of Alberta, Co-Founder and Advisor, Oisin Biotechnologies, President, of Global Healthspan Policy Institute, and Co-Founder and Treasurer, SENS Research Foundation. Kevin is a successful entrepreneur and owner of the largest motorcycle and snowmobile dealership in Canada, Riverside Honda and Skidoo Sales in Edmonton, Alberta. He became a cancer survivor, an experience which clearly highlighted the deficiencies of the current health technology development paradigm where the customer has almost no input in the development of their own health solutions. Armed with the realization that nothing is more valuable than health and the time to enjoy it with those you love, Kevin resolved to put his energies towards addressing these deficiencies. In 2003, Kevin joined Aubrey de Grey and David Gobel to form the Methuselah Foundation which offered competitive prizes for advances in longevity science. A few years later he became a co-founder with Aubrey de Grey and others of SENS Research Foundation to develop interventions able to repair or make harmless the damage that accumulates and underlies multiple age-related disorders. Mostly recently, Kevin formed OpenCures as a for-benefit corporation helping individuals perform self-directed research, generate data, and focus the value of data on the health solutions they are interested in. Kevin has authored and co-authored several peer-reviewed articles all focused on accelerating the science underlying the development of therapies for degenerative diseases. He is a co-founder of multiple non-profit and for-profit entities whose missions are aligned with that purpose. Kevin has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of Alberta, with work performed at the Campisi Lab of the Buck Institute studying the effects of natural compounds on senescence, as well as a BSc, Double Major, in Biology and Chemistry.Support the show