IUPAC webinar series on Entrepreneurship and Chemistry
Conversation between Dr Amy S. Cannon and Prof. Francesca Kerton
WEBINAR Wednesday, 5 February 2025 | 2:00 PM GMT | 3:00 PM CET | 9:00 AM EST
The path towards a sustainable society grounded in green chemistry and sustainability is often focused on changing practice within industry and catalyzing innovation and entrepreneurship within the technical sectors. New, greener technologies are required to address a range of sustainability challenges at the earliest stages of the product lifecycle and have found to have real, measurable impacts. In addition to the industrial innovation that needs to take place, innovation is also necessary within our educational systems. Without a pipeline of scientists trained with skills founded in principles of green chemistry, sustainability, and circularity, there will be little change. Beyond Benign is a non-profit organization that has been advancing green chemistry education throughout the education continuum for over a decade. As an organization that is mission-based, entrepreneurial vision is just as important as in for-profit companies – it is necessary in creating a sustainable organization that is capable of catalyzing real change. This presentation will share how a group of passionate individuals enable and empower others to be changes agents and implement greener practices within academia. This is the 3rd Webinar in this series on Chemistry Entrepreneurship.
About the Speakers
Dr. Amy S. Cannon – Executive Director & Co-Founder, Beyond Benign
https://www.beyondbenign.org/
Amy is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Beyond Benign, a global non-profit dedicated to green chemistry education. She holds the world’s first Ph.D. in green chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Amy is a leading voice for systemic change in chemistry education, advocating for global education systems to better prepare students and scientists with green chemistry skills to address sustainability challenges. Amy has industrial experience working for the Gillette Company and Rohm and Haas and was an Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell before founding Beyond Benign. Since inception, this organization has been leading Green Chemistry education initiatives in K-12 through higher education, focusing on empowering educators to make transformative change in their teaching and practice. Amy’s community-based work includes the global higher education program, the Green Chemistry Commitment comprised of over 200 Universities worldwide, and the on-line teaching and learning community platform, the GCTLC.
Prof. Francesca Kerton
Francesca Kerton is a professor of Green Chemistry at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada and has a global reputation for her innovative research on sustainable chemistry related to the oceans. She currently chairs the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s standing committee on Chemical Research Applied to World Needs (CHEMRAWN). She is an Associate Editor for the journal RSC Sustainability. She received the 2019 Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Award, and the 2023 SCI-Canada Kalev Pugi Award for exceptional achievements in research and development. More recently she was recognized as one of 3M’s 25 Women in Science – 2024’s program focused on environmental sustainability.
This is the third of a series of webinars that are part of the IUPAC project “Chemistry Entrepreneurship“, chaired by Prof. Bipul Saha and Prof. Hemda Garelick.